Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

The news of our day is so filled with hate, war, carnage and unseemly conduct, it staggers the mind. Recently a local news item was about a woman who left a prayer meeting one evening only to be set upon by five hoodlums who robbed, stripped her and sexually assaulted her not far from her church.

I had heard the news on my car radio while on my way to my own prayer group and my heart broke. I thought: “God, how can this be? She should have been delivered from that attack!” I started to pray for her immediately along the lines – “God, would you touch her body, calm her mind and erase the memories of the terror she has been through, please help her and bring her peace.”  Others had heard the news as well and we joined in prayer for her. I will continue to pray for her because she has been scarred in a way no one wants to be. I know that God is able to restore her and our prayer should be that her faith will not fail, and that in time she will be able to see her suffering as part of her walk in identifying with Christ in his suffering.

When my daughter got home that evening, her question was blunt as she often is: “Where was God?” I am sure many, believers and unbelievers alike, had asked the same question that day. To say that God did not care, would mean he also did not care when Christ was crucified. Far from it! We know that in the darkness of that hour God demonstrated the magnitude of his love for us at tremendous cost to Himself. My discussion with my daughter centered on the free will acts of the perpetrators – how is it that five men, born of women, could so viciously attack a woman? Our human response was that they should have been hit by a bolt of lightning. But the Lord is not wanting anyone (including those men) to perish but everyone to come to repentance. (See 2 Peter 3: 9). Let us pray that He will bring them to their knees while he heals our sister’s mind and body and reveal His glory to her. The Lord is just and is able to adjudicate both cases.