God's Compassion Gives Us Strength In Times Of Trouble

Nahum 1:3-7 - The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet.  At his command the oceans and rivers dry up, the lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade, and the green forests of Lebanon wilt.  In his presence the mountains quake, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles, and its people are destroyed. Who can stand before his fierce anger? Who can survive his burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence.  The LORD is good. When trouble comes, he is a strong refuge. And he knows everyone who trusts in him.

 

Nahum did things just a bit different that the other prophets of his day. He wrote his visions down….and sent them to the people God told him they were about. He wrote these words that seem to contradict each other to the people of Nineveh…perhaps 100 years after they had repented upon hearing the words of Jonah.  They had slipped back into the ways of their fathers …..evil had taken over their city once again.

 

Yes…God is a jealous God.  He will not share our love with any other being…or any other object. But this God that is capable of drying up the Red Sea….or giving his son the power to speak quiet into a raging storm…is slow to show the full power of his wrath. He wants to give everyone a chance to repent before he pronounces the final judgment.

 

Because he is slow to anger…his compassion when we are troubled shows his best feature.  He wraps us with his love and comforts us. He takes our hand and walks with us through the worst of the storm.  He even hides us in his peace if we let him.  The only thing we have to do is trust him.

 

I admit…trust is not as easy as speaking the words. It takes a routine of faith to keep the strength to let him take over and be our refuge. We must develop a relationship with daily prayer and study of his word in order to transfer the trust we have in what we can see and hear…to the trust we could have in God’s unknown future.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that you are my refuge and strength.  Forgive me for the times that I forget to call on your power to help me through a hard time…and fall back on my own skills. Thank you for picking me up after I fall…and dusting me off…and helping me to get going in the right direction again. Help me Lord to trust you more and more each day by spending more and more time with you in prayer and study.  Amen.