God's Plan in Crisis

In Psalm 27, we find the writer in crisis mode; he is besieged and looking for God's hand:
3 Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war should rise against me, In this I will be confident.
4 One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.
5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

When we face adversity, when trouble and crisis enter our lives, we can be motivated to seek the Lord more wholeheartedly, desiring to see Him in the difficulties.  Even when it's hard to see, we know that He has a plan, and He desires to derive glory from our trying situation.  With that confidence, we go forth with prayer in faith, to practice what He has called us to do.  We rely on the Spirit to show us His desired steps for us, and trust Him to empower us to follow His will.

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As we follow the plan of God and pursue Him with prayer, we can rely on Him to empower us to walk by faith. We do have to resist fear that would hold us back. Isaiah 41 says:
9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions, And said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away:
10 Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'

In a time of crisis, we look for God at work while we continue to look to God to work.  Whether it's the devastating flooding in Texas or the aftermath of a terror attack in Barcelona, we know that God is responsive to the prayer of His people.

I came across a story on the Mission Network News website about God at work in Spain, where a series of terror attacks occurred recently.  The MNN site stated that...

...a vehicle drove into a street of tourists in the heart of Barcelona and killed 13 people. Not long after that, another terrorist vehicle attack and stabbing in Cambrils killed one more and injured six just after midnight Friday morning. A driver of a hijacked car was also found stabbed to death just outside Barcelona. In total, 15 people were killed and more than 100 injured in this series of terror attacks.

12 suspects had a hearing last week.

The story states that Rebecca Lampaya, Spain Field Leader with the ministry, Operation Mobilization, "says the Barcelona attack hit extremely close to home for OM’s ministry there." She said, “We don’t have an OM team in Barcelona…but we have a team just very close, about 25 kilometers south of Barcelona. It is very well connected with public transportation, so our team goes to Barcelona probably a couple of times a week.

She said that the OM team had been walking through the affected are the day before the attack in Barcelona. She related that if there had been some sort of "change of plans," they could have been on that street when the attack took place.  Also, OM had held an evangelistic conference not long ago in Tarragona and had ministered in a park in Cambrils.

Lampaya relates:

"The day before the outreach, we went to talk to the mayor of the town, we went to the city hall, [and] we asked them if we could pray for them. But they said, ‘No, please pray for the town of Cambrils.’ So it’s very interesting, it was like, ‘Okay, we’ll pray for the town of Cambrils’, and after a month, this is happening.”

She relates that, "we are still digesting and trying to see what is the plan of God in this area.” The story states that, "It has stirred the local churches to action." Lampaya adds, “Right now, the churches are praying and sending messages of comfort to the families that have been affected..."

Rebecca relates that the biggest prayer need is to see the spread of the gospel in Barcelona, Cambrils, and all of Spain.  She also encourages prayer for unity for the churches in Barcelona.  And, furthermore, as she states:

“Spain needs [Gospel] workers. Spain is a country that evangelicals are a minority, so sometimes when you have this kind of attack, it won’t help very much when we are trying to recruit workers to come and work in Spain because of what happened last Thursday. So I think it would be interesting to pray that whoever God is calling to work in Europe…that they will take the courage to come and work in countries like Spain, no matter what happened before. It’s true that it can happen again because Europe is a target of these kinds of terrorist attacks, but I think it’s important that people who God is calling to reach out to nationals, to those who are in need of understanding what the Gospel means, that they will come no matter what they hear on the news.”

What is the plan of God - that is a question that the Operation Mobilization team is grappling with. And, I think it's an important question for all of our lives.  Sometimes we may not know, but we can pray for His wisdom, and for Him to use His people in the spread of the gospel, in our communities and around the world.  

From Rebecca Lampaya's report, you can recognize that prayer is a key element in the furtherance of God's plan. In a crisis situation such as the one that has unfolded there in Spain, the enemy would want to use those events to inhibit the plan of God, and prayer can be a powerful tool to break down the barriers.  

We recognize that the practice of faith brings fruit for the glory of God. In this situation, Satan would want people to share less, this gives an opportunity to share more.  The enemy would want to break churches apart, but God wants to bring them together.  The enemy would want fewer Gospel workers and would use fear to accomplish that end; God wants more laborers to go into the harvest, responding in faith.  When we commit to following God's plan to to pray for His will to be done, we can walk in obedience as He directs.