Police Devotion 6-8-2017

Although thou [Job] sayest thou shalt not see him [God], yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.” (Job 35:14)

You’re on patrol and get a domestic call. You pull up to the house, and a woman flies out the front door. She’s bloody and hysterical. Her boyfriend is inside the house with their son. You run in and go quickly from room to room, gun pointed. You get to the kitchen. A man with a BIG knife has a little boy in front of him. You yell at him to drop it. He swears at you and says he’ll kill the kid. You yell again. He won’t drop it. You sight in at his chest, above the boy’s head. You yell again. He pulls the boy’s head back. You yell again. He puts the knife to the boy’s throat. You fire. He drops. The knife falls. The boy screams.

You pull the boy to safety, kick the knife away, and grab your collar mic: “Radio, send EMS. Officer-involved shooting, suspect down, everyone else OK.”  You’re surprised at how calm you are. You holster your gun, put on latex gloves, and give first aid. You talk to the man. You don’t want him to die. Police cars fly to the scene. Cops barge in. Crowds gather. EMS takes him away. You hear later that he died.

Did you do right? Although you’ll probably feel crummy that you had to shoot someone, that doesn’t mean you didn’t do right. Don’t trust emotions—they can deceive you. Instead, ask yourself two questions:  1) who could have been killed or injured if you hadn’t done something? and 2) what other REASONABLE thing could you have done (key word: REASONABLE) with the same amount of time to decide?

The boy probably can’t understand why you did what you did. Hopefully, his mom will tell him the truth in a simple way so he gets it:  “Daddy tried to hurt mommy, and he tried to hurt you. The police came to help, and they had to do what they did.” If he hears the truth, he’ll more likely have peace of mind about it. However, if people fill his head with lies, he may believe them and hate cops because he listened to lies.

You understand the shooting incident far more than the boy. Likewise, God understands everything far better than we do. Isaiah 55:9 says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Like the boy in the shooting, we may not know why things happen, but as our opening verse says, we can trust in God even in our dark times. Job was a real person who served God, but he had lost seven kids at one time. If anyone had the right to ask God why, Job did. Yet Job even said of God, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15).

What if the boy grows up and learns more about the shooting from a public records check? That’s good. The more truth he gets, the more peace of mind he’ll have. The records will give him truth and dispel lies. God also gave us a public record—the Bible—to tell us the truth about Him and dispel lies. If you want to know about God, don’t just look for a sign in the sky or listen to people who may not know what they’re talking about. Look in His Word for answers you need to help you trust Him. God promises us, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

If you need assurance that God loves you, the best proof of God’s love is the cross of Jesus. That’s where God the Son loved you and paid your sin-debt: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). To see how to receive Jesus as your personal Saviour please click “Helpful Links” on the top menu and then “How Do I Go to Heaven?” on the dropdown.

Brian Miller 6/8/2017

Cleveland Baptist Church | 4431 Tiedeman Road, Brooklyn, Ohio 44144 | 216.671.2822