Prayers for Boston and the World

Prayers for Boston and the World

Honestly, it’s been a bit crazy to hear about the bombing in Boston. The bombing have luckily killed only a few people, but still a few too many, because things like this should not be happening. It’s painful to imagine family and friends just shocked and scared about how their loved ones are doing and not being able to know if they are alive, hurt, or safe. I hope that for all of us, our priorities would be to reach out to those around us who were directly affected, or those we know that have family and friends in the area, and finally to be praying for all those affected even if we don’t know them.

It’s also in times like this that people will definitely be asking “Why did God allow this to happen?” I think that this is a natural question to ask and I understand where people are coming from. I want to share with you that God has not forgotten about you or us in general. He is with us in all our pain and suffering because we are his loved ones. We are his creation, his sons and daughters. I want to share this verse with you all from what I read today. It really helped me to see that God does not forget us and never will.

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;

break forth, O mountains, into singing!

For the Lord has comforted his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted.

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget,

yet I will not forget you.

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me. (Isaiah 49:13-16, ESV)

Just like the passage, we will say that God has forsaken us, he’s forgotten us, or that there essentially is no God. But God is there. He’s with us. And he says that just like a mother, how can one forget their own child? The funny thing is that God says, there might be the off chance a mother does forget, but God will never forget us! He’s engraved us into his palms! This imagery is so powerful for me and so essential to me especially through these hard times. We need to remind ourselves that God is here with us.

Sometimes we might not understand why God allows certain things to happen, but we do need to trust God that his ways and his thoughts are higher than our. We need to let go of our understanding of good, because if we only speak of good from an understanding based on our personal happiness, we will never fully understand the bigger picture of God’s understanding of good and his personal glory. We suffer, but we also have to know that God has suffered with us and also died in that suffering through Christ so that we might not have to suffer for eternity. Christ suffered once and for all so that we may not have to suffer forever but have life forever.

Let’s encourage each other to see Christ through this tough time and to reach out to those around us. Let’s continue to preach the good news because that’s exactly what everyone needs right now. And on a more practical note, let’s also continue to help out physically whenever we can, like donating to blood drives!