Why God Allows?....... 5 Things to Remember When Natural Disasters Occur 

Amos 3:6 says:
⁶ If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?
If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?

Isaiah 45:5-7 says:
⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
⁶ That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
⁷ I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.’

1. We live in a broken world.

The Bible tells us that when sin entered the world, all of nature was cursed. Sin was in God provisional plan He allowed sin so man will have their own free will of choice Gen 3:22-23. We were created to live forever, either hell or heaven; but we must make our decision. The Bible says that God had the Lamb prepared before the creation of the world – why?  Because God wanted a free world, God before he created all, he rehearsed this thing called world we live as in a movie; and now God oversees that all things fall in place as He planned from the beginning Job 42:2 “I know that You can do everything. And that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. Isa 14:24-27 verse 24 says: The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand.

Now because of sin, death is a promised component of this life and, to put it simply, bad things will happen before someone must die, Job 5:7 Yet man is born to trouble,
As the sparks fly upward. Therefore prepare to meet your God Amos 4:12 “Therefore thus will I do to you; because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, all you people of the world”

Before the fall of man, the weather was perfect all the time. There was no change in season, no rain or snow storms, earthquakes, tornadoes or tsunamis. Before the fall of man, everything worked in perfect harmony. Because of sin, that is no longer the case. 

We must accept the fact that we live in a broken world and expect that natural disasters will occur. Romans 8:19 -22 tells us, “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” 

We must remember this world is not our home. While natural disasters are a reality in this life, for the children of God, there will be no disasters in eternity.
 

2. God is sovereign.

We could argue whether God causes natural disasters or simply allows them to happen, but the only conclusion we can draw from Scripture is that nothing in nature happens outside of God’s providence. In Exodus, God clearly sent the plagues in Egypt. In Genesis, God sent the flood. When we read about Jonah, we see that God hurled a storm into the sea. 

Job 37:6 says, “He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’" Consider Psalm 147: “He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.” In Amos 4 God says, “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.” Mark 4:9 tells of Jesus rebuking the wind and saying to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Out of obedience, the wind died down and was completely calm. 

Note how these Scriptures attribute the weather - good or bad - to the direct controlling hand of God. This is frightening to many, as it makes God appear rash or untrustworthy. But the truth is quite the opposite. This brings us to the third thing we must remember.

3. God can be trusted.

Many people find it easy to trust God when they focus on phrases like “God is good” or “God is love,” but we must remember also that “God is just.” This is difficult for some when faced with natural disasters in light of verses like Psalm 115:3, which says “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him,” or Isaiah 45:7, “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.” 

We look at the world and its natural disasters and decide what is just and unjust based on our own thoughts and emotions. We look at the Bible and, rather than letting it say what it says, we interpret it as what we want it to say. But, we must remember Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 
We, who are as broken as all of nature, are the ones who can not be trusted. Our judgement is not sound. Proverbs 3:5 reminds us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” If we can’t trust our God in all things, who then can we trust?
 

4. There is still joy to be had.

For many, surviving a natural disaster means more than losing material possessions; it means losing loved ones. Under such circumstances, it might seem difficult to experience joy while facing such devastation, but feeling joy in the face of suffering is not to deny pain. For children of God, suffering and joy go hand in hand. 

Peter wrote to scattered Christians telling them, “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” (1 Peter 1:6) Paul is a great example of this also. While he didn’t face tornados, hurricanes or earthquakes, the list of his personal trials is quite extensive - you can read about it in 2 Corinthians 6:3 -10. Notice his words at the end of his list of trials, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” 

Natural disasters remind us of several truths: life is short, we are frail, and death is certain. Sadly, we are also reminded of the countless lost souls among us. By expressing joy in the midst of crisis, Christians glorify the Lord, encourage one another, and point the lost to hope in Christ. 

Perhaps our best example in suffering is found in Job 1:21. After losing material possessions, his own health, and all of his children, the cry of his heart was, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”


Are natural disasters a sign of the times?

Yes, Bible prophecies suggest that there would be disasters during “the conclusion of the system of things,” or “the last days.” (Matthew 24:3; 2 Timothy 3:1) For example, concerning our time, Jesus said: “There will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.” (Matthew 24:7) Soon, God will rid the earth of all causes of pain and suffering, including natural disasters.​—Revelation 21:​3, 4.

5. Worse things are yet to come.

When we read Matthew 24:5-8, it’s clear that despite the natural disasters we face now, there are worse things to come and we must be ready. “For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” 

This verse sums up all the points above. There are birth pains because we live in a broken world. God is sovereign and he can be trusted as he tells us to not be alarmed because these things must take place. We can glorify the Lord in our response to crises and point others to Christ. But the good news is, while there are worse things yet to come in this life, Paradise is on the horizon! 

Isaiah 25:8-9 tells us, “He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in that day, ‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.’”

Please pray with me:

Father God, we praise you for who you are; that you are sovereign in all things, that you are just and trustworthy, and that you love your children even though we are sinful and often doubt you when faced with tragedy. As we watch natural disasters unfold around us, and for those who have personally been touched by such devastation, help us always to rejoice in you and to point to the One who paid the price for our undeserved salvation. May the cry of our hearts ever be, “this world is not our home, come Lord Jesus, come.” Amen.

http://IGiveSomeGood.ToYou.ws

The Wakeup Call is when the alarm sounds in your Hotel room

The Day of the Lord is near! Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand

Japan earthquake, tsunami, tornados, flooding, and many to come are a wakeup call to the end time; see God’s role in natural disasters. Mat 24:1-51 “the hidden realities of God’s invisible world.” Rev 21:1-8

Where was God when tornadoes swept through the land, leaving a trail of grief and chaos?

In the wake of loss and disaster, we struggle to understand how a God who is all-powerful and all-knowing can also be considered good and loving. Teachers tackles this tough subject head-on Click Here, Where is God when hurricanes and earthquakes comes?

Q: Can you address something we hear many times, which is “Why would God allow natural disasters?”

One thing we have to remember is that the world is fallen. The Bible says that when man fell into sin, all of nature was cursed. In other words, it was impossible for a sinful man to live in a perfect environment of paradise, so all of nature is cursed.

But having said that, it doesn’t mean that God has a hands-off policy when it comes to natural disasters. Many people want to protect God from the clear teaching of the Bible, which shows He is involved in natural disasters. It is not that God causes them, but the very fact that He could prevent them shows that we need to face squarely the fact that natural disasters happen within God’s providence.

Let me give you a few examples. During the time of the plagues in Egypt, clearly God sent those plagues. Then you have the time of Noah; the flood obviously was sent by God. It says regarding Jonah, God hurled a storm into the sea. We must see God in natural disasters. The question, of course, is why does he allow them and what is there to be learned.

Q: What kinds of lessons can we learn from natural disasters?

Natural disasters are a megaphone from God and they teach us various lessons. First of all, natural disasters show us the uncertainty of life. Thousands of people wake up in the morning not knowing what is going to happen that day, such as the terrible devastation in Haiti and elsewhere. There was a couple that left California because they were afraid of earthquakes. Then when they came to Missouri, they were killed in a tornado. We can’t get away from the reality that life is very, very short and it’s possible for us to delude ourselves.

When we look at the news and see these disasters, it’s like a preview of the natural disasters that will someday come upon the earth. When you look at the second coming of Christ, you find many different natural disasters connected with it.

Q: What can Christians say to neighbors and friends who question whether God can be merciful and loving and allow disasters to happen?

One of the greatest challenges we have as Christians is to somehow continue to believe God and to trust Him in the midst of horrendous devastation. When you see children being separated from their fathers and mothers, when you see lives being torn and hundreds of people dead, it is very natural to ask the question, “Where is God?”

What we need to realize is that God can be trusted, even when it seems as if He is not on our side. We have to point people to the fact that God has intervened in our planet by sending Jesus Christ. There we see the love of God most clearly.

It was Martin Luther who said, “When you look around and wonder whether God cares, you must always hurry to the cross and you must see Him there.”

The other thing you need to realize is that time is short and eternity is long. Some times we reverse that. The values that we have here on this earth, although life is precious, the fact is that earthquakes do not increase death. Everybody is going to die someday. It’s the way they die that causes us so much grief.

When we hear about a natural disaster we should grieve with those who grieve. And we should ask what we can do to alleviate their suffering.

Finally, I think this is the best illustration. All of Job’s 10 children died in a natural disaster. There was a wind storm that blew down the house. Job was confronted with the fact that because of a natural disaster, there are 10 fresh graves on the hilltop. So now what is he going to do?

His wife says to curse God and die. But Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job shows us it is possible to worship God even without explanations, even when we don’t know all the reasons. Those who worship God under those conditions are especially blessed.

Recent Tornadoes

Our prayers are with the people who lost homes and loved ones in the recent tornadoes. Please join us in praying for those who have been affected. Click here to support those affected, which has deployed churches to offer spiritual and emotional care to people who are hurting.

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