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Athesits and foxholes


Ezekiel 30:26

When I disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them among the countries, they will know that I am Yahweh.”

 

Thought for the day – Atheists and foxholes

There’s an old military saying: ‘There are no atheists in a foxhole’. That particular version is from the battle of Battan in 1943 But the reality is, it’s something that’s been in circulation from at least 1914, when the Bishop of Liverpool read out a letter from an unnamed chaplain who had written to him, saying there are no atheists at the front, and men are not ashamed to say that though they have not prayed before, they are praying now.

But it’s a reminder that people can and do call out to God in difficult times. Whether it’s the trenches of WW1, the foxholes of WW2 or the bedside of a loved one dying in hospital. It seems that disaster has a way of making us acknowledge God in some way. For the Egyptians it was their exile. For soldiers it may be the dropping of shells. For civilians it could be sickness or disaster.

The challenge for us however as the people of God is not to wait till we’re in the awful place to call out and acknowledge God. But that is what we do, isn’t it. We think we’re okay, then all hell breaks lose and we ask God to rescue us. I don’t know what the answer to this is. What I do know is that we can know God now. He is available to us any time. Not just in the disaster, the war zone or the hospital bed. Don’t leave it too late.

 

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