Sunday Thought – 21.04.24

Major conflicts dominate the focus in the news and innocent lives are being reported lost on a daily basis. One such plight is the ongoing situation in Haiti with headlines such as, “Residents see no end to crisis as capital city reels from gang warfare” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68602114). How could this happen? Mankind’s wickedness and sinfulness is the simple answer, something it seems to have not much has changed since biblical times when writers observed that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (NIV, Genesis 5:5) and “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (NIV, Jeremiah 17:9). This hopelessness is captured in a quote from one mother from Port-au-Prince: “I don’t know what to do, I’m watching the country collapse… Only God can change this place because from where I’m sitting I can’t see where any other change is coming from.”

Christians believe that God HAS done something to change people’s hearts and lives by sending his son Jesus as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. Many people spurn this offer of change, despising and rejecting Jesus just as Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth (Isaiah 53:3). However, there will be no end to the crises of the world and wicked hearts until people personally accept God as saviour and are transformed internally (Titus 2:11-14).

If you have accepted Jesus as your saviour, rejoice today that your destiny is secured, despite all that is going on in this world. If you haven’t, what is making you reject him?

Prayer Points for the Week:

• Pray for those participating in the London Marathon, that people will run safely and successfully support charities.
• Pray for those who witnessed and tried to help a man who publicly self-immolated in New York.
• Please pray for the situations in Ukraine and the Middle East. For peace; for aid to get through to those in need; for those mourning the loss of loved ones.