Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. (Psalm 33:22)
Andrew Murray in his book, Waiting on God shares the following:
The eye of the Lord is upon them…..to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in the famine.(Psalm 33:18-19) Not to prevent the danger of death and famine- this is often needed to stir the waiting on Him- but to deliver and keep alive. For the dangers are often very real and dark, the situation, whether in the temporal or spiritual life, may appear to be utterly hopeless. There is always one hope: God’s eye is on them.
That eye see the danger, and sees in tender love His trembling waiting child, and sees the moment when the heart is ripe for blessing, and sees the way in which it is to come. This living, mighty God- oh let us fear Him and seek His mercy!
Oh the blessedness of waiting on such a a God! He is a very present help in every time of trouble; a shield and defense against every danger. Children of God! Will you not learn to sink down in entire helplessness and impotence and in stillness to wait and see the salvation of God?
In the utmost spiritual famine, and when death appears to prevail, oh wait on God! He does deliver, He does keep alive. Say it not in solitude, but say it to each other- this Psalm speaks not of one but of God’s people- “Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.(Psalm33:20-21)
Strengthen and encourage each other in the holy exercise of waiting, that each may not only say it of himself but of his brethren, “We have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.(Isaiah25:9)
I believe a God is offering us the potential of an incredible future. Hear that word, potential. As we are separated and isolated from life as usual, we can choose to fret or we can choose this time as a sabbatical of rest, restoration and deepening our relationship with God. While we would like life to be free of struggle, we know that trials come. It’s not whether or not they come but what we do with them. We can give in to despair or fear. We can allow the helpless, hopeless feelings to control our thoughts. We can spend the time blaming someone for the crisis. OR, we can say to the Lord, use this crisis to work something deeper in me and your church. We can pace the floor of the dungeon, wringing our hands, or like Joseph, recognize the in this time God is preparing us for greater ministry. We can chafe under the unfairness of all that’s happening in our world and lives or like Paul, write letters that would find themselves being read by Christians almost 2000 years later. I do not know when or I if life will ever be “normal” again but I pray we will never be the same. I pray that our values have been adjusted, our goals remeasured and our focus redirected to the kingdom of God. While I don’t know why we have this crisis, some say human error, others say God’s attempt to get our attention and a host of other reasons, I do believe that for whatever reason it’s happening, if we will give it and ourselves to God, He will bring good out of it.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:28,31
Pastor John