Last week I wrote, “The fact may be that next year we will be facing an economic and financial downturn, but the truth is that we will be riding on a spiritual upturn.”

Then on Saturday, 27 Dec. Foo Yee Ping wrote an article in her State Side column with this title: Prayers run high as cash runs low. This excerpt says it all (please read the rest of the article):

These days of economic hell are bringing Americans to their knees. Literally.

Churches have reported bigger attendances. Cries from the fall of Wall Street resonated at the nearby Trinity Church, which responded with programmes such as Faith and Finance: Fresh Takes on the Economy, a video series.

More tellingly, even prayer websites have been deluged by those seeking divine intervention in these dark hours when cash is running low.

“I am desperate. I haven’t been working for a while. I have a lot of bills to pay and I have nowhere to go,” says a note posted on online prayer sanctuary…. “Please send me prayers in this difficult time.”….

Paige Wheeler, founder [of the prayer website], said prayer requests had been rising from those struggling to make ends meet.

“The increase of those asking for financial blessings and miracles has started to overshadow those seeking physical healings,” she said.

While it may not be the politically right thing to say; it is, however, true to say: When times are good, most people wouldn’t give God the time of day, but when times are bad and they have come to the end of themselves, they will turn to God for help. Does the Lord welcome that? Of course, He does, and so should we.

Note, however, people are not necessarily turning to the Judeo-Christian God or the church for help. The prayer website that Foo Yee Ping quotes in her article is evidence of this. Its approach is inter-faith in nature. And so when people pray it may be to a god of their own choice, or at best to “an unknown god”.

This is where we need to step in quick and confidently —to direct the seeker to Jesus, who alone is their source of help, comfort and wisdom during their hour of need.

Paul says in 2 Tim 1:12, “Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”

The world may despair in the day of an economic and financial meltdown; not so the people of God whose confidence is in Jesus the Rock…

“I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED”

PrSH