Why, Father God, do You take so long to exert Your justice and power? I don't ask that in a challenging way but in a sincerely curious way. I have even begun (slow learner) to see that You do not always--or even frequently--rescue Your beloved ones from what the world would consider terrible situations, even death. I am remembering the Oscar-winning movie "JoJo Rabbit," in which people who sheltered Jewish people were put to death. This story is also told in Corrie tenBoom's life and book "The Hiding Place." I think that less mature Christians, who are children in their faith, expect heroic and miraculous rescues in which You swoop in like Superman to save the victim and restore law and order.
It isn't always so, is it? When I sat down to make this prayer entry, I wanted to do it while listening to today's devotional readings from Psalms. Sure enough, in the first of six, there it is.
"How long, LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever?
Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility You have created all humanity!
Lord, where is Your former great love, which in Your faithfulness You swore to [me]? Remember, Lord, how Your servant has been mocked ("gross misconduct," violence, religious bigotry), how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations, the taunts with which Your enemies, LORD, have mocked, with which they have mocked every step of Your anointed one."
(all from Psalm 89)
But the ending: Praise be to the LORD forever! AMEN AND AMEN.
Make this true in my life, dearest God. I surrender, I submit, I await Your voice and Your face. Show Yourself to me, please?
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