Dear Editor,

Matthew 24: 7 states: “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places.”

Such a fitting image of what is going on in the world today. The world is in a desperate frenzy from the severe droughts earlier this year, the ISIL wars, chik-V, dengue, and now the deadly Ebola virus. What next needs to come before we realise we need to stop and repent?

Times like these really reveal how puny and helpless we are as humans. So often we are so proud of our ‘knowledge’ and reliant on our own strength, as if we have everything under control. But when the test comes, all our boasting comes to naught. Only God has absolute control on what happens.

God tells us quite clearly in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 the meaning of all these things and what we should do: “Whenever I hold back the rain or send locusts to eat up the crops, or send an epidemic on My people, if they pray to Me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again.”

I am calling on all Jamaicans, and anyone else around the world to wake up and realise the real meaning behind the signs of the times. We need to heed God’s warnings and not be like the people in Jeremiah 5:3 “He struck you, but you paid no attention; He crushed you, but you refused to learn. You were stubborn and would not turn from your sins.”

May God have mercy on us here in Jamaica, even though we don’t deserve it and spare and heal us from these pandemics.

Sarah Buckland

s131993@yahoo.com