As we headed to our beds last night, it was already dawn in Ukraine. Like many of you, I was then notified on my smartphone that a Russian military incursion had begun. Today those reports have only multiplied. Ukraine is now suffering widespread, coordinated attacks.

While serving as a pastor in San Antonio, I visited Ukraine many times to serve our churches there. I have friends throughout the country. My heart is heavy today. In such times, we cry with the Psalmist, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Ps. 10:1).

That such questions appear in Scripture reminds us that God not only understands our plight but validates the inscrutability of our suffering. More than that, however, God intends our questions to stir our faith and lead us to more dependent prayer. As we do, we discover that there is always a subtext to the profound suffering and evil experienced in this world. That subtext, of course, is God’s sovereign, gracious, and redemptive purpose centered on our perfect King, Jesus Christ, and the victory of the cross. Despite injustice, wars, or the evil of kings, thankfully, a deeper wisdom guides this world.

None of us can say what will occur in Ukraine or the world in the days ahead, but we can be confident in the character of our God who hears the prayers of his children and will finally extinguish the presence of evil. I want to encourage us to pray earnestly for the entire country of Ukraine and particularly for the churches, alumni, MTW missionaries, and believers to which so many of us are connected and are now in harm’s way.

Though Psalm 10 begins with a question born of suffering, it concludes with a confidence that can only be born of faith:

"O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that the man who is of the earth may strike terror no more" (Ps. 10:17-18).

Friends, this remains our hope and guides our prayers today.