1 Thessalonians 1:4-10

“Resocialized in Faith”

Over the last couple of months, the news has been filled with reports of huge natural disasters.  From the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the flooding along the Mississippi, tornadoes in the Midwest and even in Massachusetts, to the wildfires spreading across the southwestern United States, people’s lives are being devastated by some of the worst natural disasters that I can remember.  My heart breaks for the victims of these disasters and I pray that God would make Himself known through all of the destruction.

But every time I watch the news I get frustrated with the anchors.  In times of trouble, have you ever noticed that news anchors will always say something like, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims.”  These statements just bother me for a couple of reasons.  First of all, what good are my thoughts?  I’m not saying that it’s bad to be thoughtful; quite the contrary!  Thoughtfulness is quite good when your thoughts for someone lead you to action.  But, I often feel like those who are offering their “thoughts” to victims very rarely do anything about it.  They’re just simply thoughts.

The second thing that bothers me about this is when people offer their prayers at times like this.  I know that this sounds like a weird thing for a pastor to say, but I am bothered by the fact that I don’t know who these people are praying to!  The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” and if prayer isn’t being rightfully directed, toward God, then there is a problem.  They could be praying to Allah, Buddha, Krishna, their great uncle Harry, or their next door neighbor’s dead cat, but unless these prayers are offered up to the one God in the name of the one mediator, Jesus Christ, then they are just as ineffective as the “thoughts.”