When Do We Turn to God?

By Austin Greer

            On September 11^th, 2001, a group of Islamic extremists hijacked four American airplanes to fulfill a suicidal mission of killing many people. Two of these planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. One plane crashed in the Pentagon just outside of Washington D.C., and the other plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people died because of the actions of the Islamic extremists. From the time this event took place, until two weeks later, there was a huge spike in church attendance around the country. People were attempting to turn to God during a tragedy. Soon, the spike went away, and they carried on with their day to day lives. Yet, it seems that whenever something tragic happens, people want to turn to God.

            In Joshua chapter 7, there was a comparable situation in terms of turning to God after something bad happened. About this time, Joshua was the leader of Israel and they had began conquering the promise land. There was material that belonged to God that nobody could take from, and the consequence of taking anything from this ban was the nation of Israel would be accursed (Joshua 6:17-19). We see that Achan was not obedient to this command when he took things from under the ban (Joshua 7:1). About this same time, Israel had their eyes on conquering Ai. When Joshua was planning this attack, it was his battle plan. God was not in the picture. Joshua had no idea that Israel was now accursed, nor was he aware of the sin of Achan. He tried to do things himself.

            Although Israel only sent about 3,000 men to Ai, they were defeated because they were accursed. 36 men died along the way (7:4-5). Even if all of Israel would’ve gone, they still would’ve been defeated because they were accursed. Afterwards, Joshua decided to turn to God, and He learned that the nation was accursed. Once Achan and all that belonged to him was dead and the items that he coveted destroyed, Israel was no longer accursed (7:24-26). The sad thing for Israel is this entire situation could’ve been avoided had Joshua turned to the Lord first for His battle plan.

            Do we consider our relationship with God in the decisions we make, or do we just coast through life? Do we only turn to God when things are bad, or will we have the kind of relationship that we need to have with God? The reality is we need God. We need to learn to rely on Him and not ourselves. It is good when we turn to God when things are tough, but that shouldn’t be the only time we turn to God. Don’t just turn to God when facing tragedy. Rely on God in all things.

(Austin is currently a student at the Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver)