This morning I am thinking about the times we are living in. Uncertainty is everywhere. Fear has abound these last few months, people are getting restless. Jobs have been curtailed, or put on pause. Thousands upon thousands have lost their jobs. The government is stepping up to minimize the loss of income. Yet we don’t rely on the government to be our provider.
This is a time that the church along with so many others has been shaken. Governors have tried to stop churches from worshiping all in the name of safety. We as a body draw strength from our corporate worship. We change atmospheres, and instill confidence and peace in our inner most being by being in the presence of God. Yet, in the midst of these uncertain times, God is still at work.
While life as we have known it is drastically different, it has been an opportunity for our faith to grow deeper roots. It has allowed the things in our thinking that aren’t consistent with God’s nature to come to the surface. We have had no place to go but to God to resolve our fears and conflicts. For many this has been unbelievably lonely. What is deep within you has been revealed. All insecurities, all fears, all apprehensions have reared their ugly heads. So where do you go to from here? Will you with relief go back to life as you knew it when all this craziness is behind you? Will you carry with you a new confidence in God as truly being your comforter and provider? Will your faith be deeper? Or will you abandon what you are learning for the ease of worldly ways?
For me, this has been a journey that has exceeded the stay at home edict. I started this isolation 4 years ago when we moved here. I tried to explain the loneliness to my friends from a different season in my life. How can you convey what isolation is like unless you have experienced it? What I am recognizing is that God leads me in ways vastly different than he used to do. I have questioned it at times because it is so subtle, so quiet. I have found myself doing things at times with no understand of why I was doing it. I have made decisions that at times seemed odd in their timing, only to discover that God had lead me to be positioned where I needed to be at just the right time. God has been faithful to me, my family.
My husband and I are entering into a new chapter of our lives. We are watching God go before us and prepare the way in unexpected ways. We are making a huge decision that the things of this world would seriously question our wisdom. Yet we draw our confidence on the faithfulness and the character of God. He tells us that He will not give us a stone if we ask for bread. While I don’t understand the timing, I know that God does. He has his reasons. I choose to trust him with our future. My encouragement to you, is to do the same. You don’t see the whole picture, you only see in part. God is very busy behind the scenes preparing things for your next season. Where there is no way in the natural, there is an open door with God. Don’t worry about the things being shaken off, they needed to be shaken. The faith in you needed to emerge. Faith needs an ACTION to be put into place. Don’t be afraid to step out into your new normal. Your future awaits and its going to be great. Enjoy the adventure of this life and really take in and take note of how God is leading you. Rejoice in his plans for you, they are good!