Are the Works of God Being Displayed in Us?

Wildfires and hurricanes and riots and viruses are all in the news cycle today, at least when they can squeeze themselves in among coverage of political races and supreme court nominations. It’s easy to see why people are asking whether or not we are experiencing God’s judgment. Somewhere in that sentiment, there’s an acknowledgment that we probably do deserve the judgment. 

On the other hand, many Americans tend to think that we are above pain and suffering and judgment. Starvation, disease, and natural catastrophes are for other, less developed parts of the world. There’s no way that a virus should be allowed to stop us from working, or going to restaurants, or taking vacations, or playing sports. We expect, we demand, we even deserve a medical breakthrough. After all, this is America.

We even think we’re more deserving than Americans who lived before us. We feel bad for those poor folks who died in the 1917 Spanish flu pandemic, but that should never happen in 2020. Are we more deserving than they were?

Because of our belief that we are more deserving than others, when bad things happen, we automatically jump to the conclusion that God must be involved in some way. This shouldn’t be happening to us, so God must be at work. If there’s a famine in Kenya or flooding in Bangladesh, that’s sad, but it’s just part of life in those countries. But when a hurricane or an earthquake hits the United States, it must be God’s judgment. It’s as if we think that God’s plan revolves around us.

In John 5, we read the story of a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, which, of course, to the Jewish religious leaders was a big no-no. They asked the man who it was that had healed him, and he said he didn’t know who it was. Jesus later found the man again and told him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you” (John 5:14 ESV). Jesus is insinuating here that the man’s physical problems were the result of sin on his part. Sometimes bad things happen to us because God is disciplining us. 

Then in John 9, Jesus healed a man who was born blind. The disciples asked Jesus whether it was the man or his parents who sinned and caused his blindness. People in Jesus’ day considered any physical ailments to be the result of sin. If a child was born with physical issues, then it was God’s punishment on the parents. But Jesus answered them by saying, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3 ESV).

Jesus is saying that not only is this man’s blindness not the result of anyone’s sin but that God allowed this man to be born blind so that people would glorify God upon seeing Jesus heal him. The man was afflicted to show God’s awesomeness!

Sometimes suffering is due to our sin and is God’s discipline on us. And sometimes, God allows us to face difficulty to draw people’s attention to him and to make himself known.

So while it’s normal to ask whether the pandemic or other natural disasters are God’s judgment, it’s also important to ask whether they are what God is using to draw our attention to him. If that’s what God is doing, is it working? Are we turning our thoughts to God and his love and power, or is our focus on our suffering? Are we praying for God to intervene? Or are our scientists going to solve this pandemic in a way that leaves God out of the equation so the solution becomes a monument to man?

To me, there are better questions Christians should be asking than whether these are the end times or whether this is God’s judgment. We should be asking questions like:

• “God, is there anything you’re trying to teach us?”

• “How can we point people to your glory?”

Are you willing to ask God those questions?

It seems that in America we’re either so caught up in fear of a virus or so caught up in our desire to go about our normal business that we’ve failed to stop and ask God whether he is trying to say something to us or do something through us. Are we so caught up in the hardships we are facing and in the demand for our rights and freedoms that we’ve allowed this pandemic to draw our attention away from the very One who is our only hope?

I’m concerned that if the only Christians some people see are the ones arguing on Twitter or Facebook over fine points of theology that non-believers don’t care about, or over the wearing of a piece of cloth over your face, or politics, or race relations, then we’re in trouble. Are we more concerned about all of those things than we are about lost people being made right with God?

2020 is an incredible opportunity for the church to show the love of Christ to the world. This is an excellent time for the works of God to be displayed in us. We should be working diligently to share the love of Jesus in ways that matter. People are out of work and facing financial difficulty. People are afraid and looking for answers beyond what they get on cable news. People are lonely and isolated. They have very real physical, emotional, and spiritual needs that the church can meet. Are you willing to ask God what you can do in these uneasy times to point people to his glory?

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