By the time you read this article, Hurricane Florence will likely have made landfall in the southeastern United States affecting millions of people and, if forecasts prove accurate, causing billions of dollars in property damage. As I write this, I’m praying that God would minimize its impact and shrink its predicted duration.
After Hurricane Lane thrashed the Hawaiian Islands in August, September appears to be another dangerous month for those states along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Coupled with recent severe wildfires in the west, increasing volcanism, and an uptick in earthquake activity around the globe, world leaders have more than enough to keep them busy even without terrorism, addiction, and other human caused crises. 
What or who is to blame for all of these natural disasters? While some fires were intentionally set, no human being can yet manufacture storms or ignite a volcano, thank God. Nevertheless, blame for these events has flown freely accusing everyone from the President to Hollywood and from global warming to alien sabotage. The theories are plentiful and colorful to say the least.
While we are at a loss to positively identify the greater purposes or reasons behind these events, we can and should be aware of what they signal. Someone asked me recently, “Do you think God is trying to get our attention?”
I immediately answered, “Yes! Absolutely” God is always trying to get our attention! He always wants us to seek and call on Him. He loves us so much that He constantly speaks through His Word, His Church, other people, Creation, and many other means to communicate His love for us. If, however, we fail to answer or respond, He certainly has more powerful methods at His disposal.
While deaths may well result from Florence, God is not happy that we have willfully killed, or allowed to be killed, nearly 60 million children still in their mothers’ wombs. This is nearly twice the total current populations of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia combined! Thomas Jefferson, though not an evangelical Christian, proclaimed, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
At the same time, most of the entertainment industry has abandoned any honor of God and instead, now vilifies and mocks Him. Our culture also neglects His word and His ways and worships the gods of materialism, athletics, sex, and self.
Are these natural disasters direct judgment for America’s sins or are they coincidental? It’s always dangerous to presume too much knowledge of God’s purposes in specific events, but even a casual reading of divine judgments on Babel, Sodom, Samaria, and Egypt certainly should make us pause and consider what God may be up to.
Regardless of what we attribute the causes of these cataclysmic events to, we should not miss the similarity of today’s headlines and Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. In these incredible chapters, our Lord describes what conditions will be like just prior to His return. He prophesies great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and that nation will rise against nation. He also says, “nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea,” (Luke 21:25) and that “the love of most will grow cold” (Matt 24:12.) It’s hard to miss how strikingly these statements parallel those of Fox News, CNN, and the Weather Channel in recent months.
We can debate the causes of the events we are witnessing week by week, but we should not question our need to turn to God and to seek His face. He and He alone can walk with us through these perilous times and provide us with His peace even in the midst of difficult challenges.
Just as the news outlets have been warning residents to flee Florence’s approaching devastation and to prepare for the worst, God’s Word warns us to take note of the impending storm of events that will precede His return and prepare not our homes and properties, but our souls to meet Him.
Don’t wait till the storm hits to seek God. Heed His warnings and seek Him now that you might rely on His presence, power, and provision to see you through whatever may come.
Praying, George
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