Tuesday, October 1, 2024
When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute? They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the Lord has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. Psalm 94:19-22
His Power and Glory For All to See
When hard times hit, we wonder Why God would allow this to happen, or Why won't He help me? This can cause us to have anxiety and doubt God's love, ability, and faithfulness. God allows us to experience difficult situations sometimes, but we can trust that He has a purpose for the time we spend in difficult circumstances.
One purpose for hard times is that His glory is on display for the world if we are trusting and proclaiming - and living our lives in such a way that, even in hard times, we are showing the world Jesus with our whole lives. God delights in delivering us from hopeless, impossible situations, to show us that when the time comes, He will save us from the ultimate hopeless situation, death. Jesus Christ was crucified and died, but He rose again. And all who put their trust in him will also be raised to eternal life.
Even when we are not in the midst of a trial life can have a way of draining us. But when we are anxious, our physical and emotional states can get depleted a lot faster. Some of you may be facing difficult situations like fractured personal relationships, medical problems, family issues, and now job-related trials. Your situation may seem hopeless. Despair lurks and threatens to suck us under, but we have to believe our situation is not as hopeless as it seems. From a human perspective, perhaps. But from God's perspective, never.
One thing that happens when we face something we have never faced before is that we find out how human we really are. Many of us have dealt with anxiety and fear since 2020. We may not understand why we are this crisis when we know we have faith in God and trust Him. Fear and anxiety test our trust in an all-powerful God. We may question what we believe, if not on purpose, in our actions. We are not failures as Christians if we fall to fear and panic sometimes. King Hezekiah’s story is what God has shown me this week and it has been so helpful. He was a God-fearing leader, who put God above everything. But even Hezekiah, as faithful as he was, fell to fear on more than one occasion, but God repeatedly proved his faithfulness and power. God knows we are human, and fear is a very human emotion. Like Hezekiah, we can trust God to take care of us, to be our deliverer. He is bigger than anything we face and He can handle our fear.
Maybe God wants to do something mighty and powerful in your life, something unexpected, in this uncertain time. Pray. Trust in God. Wait on the Lord. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Remind yourself of all the times that God has helped you in the past, and ask Him for grace and wisdom, and keep walking by faith, rather than by sight. May God’s power and glory be displayed in this current world situation in every way.
“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” Psalm 39:7
