Financial Crisis

America is in quite a debacle with our current financial crisis and many are weighing in with solutions. Currently, politicians in Washington wrangle over government response. We wait.

In the meantime, I was encouraged by Paul and David this morning. David writes in Psalm 86, "Hear me, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life...Bring joy to your servant who trusts in you." Could prayer and trust in God through this crisis be a viable solution? Absolutely. We are all poor and needy literally or figuratively. "Every good and gracious gift is from above," James writes. We ask God and wait for divine assistance.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer recorded his morning prayer while suffering in a German prison at the hands of the Nazis. Maybe his prayer will become your prayer during financial stress, potentially captive to creditors and debt:

O God...help me to pray and to concentrate my thoughts on you; I cannot do this alone...Lord Jesus Christ, you were poor and in distres, a captive and forsaken as I am. You know all man's troubles; you abide with me and when all men fail me; you remember and seek me; It is your will that I should know you and turn to you. Lord, I hear your call and follow. Help me...Restore me to liberty, and enable me so to live now that I may answer before you and before men. Lord, whatever this day may bring, your name be praised. Amen.

Paul's encouragement comes from his letter to Timothy, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" (1 Tim. 6:17-18)

Pray for and do not be bitter or envious of the wealthy in this crisis. Heed Paul's advice to encourage the rich to be generous. Pray for generosity. And for all of us, rich and poor, Paul encourages us like David did to put our trust in God.

Let trust rule the day.

Emmanuel. God is with us.