“Lord, you are trustworthy.” I wrote the words in bold black sharpie on a neon-colored post-it and stuck it to my window nearly a year ago when several family emergencies made it seem like our world was collapsing all around us. The sticky note is still there, and it is not lost on me that as we slowly recovered from one of the most difficult and chaotic seasons of our life here, the rest of the world was thrown into turmoil over a global pandemic and systematic government lockdowns.
For the last year, “Lord, you are trustworthy,” became a prayer that I needed like oxygen. Today, the whole world needs to know this truth deeply in the midst of a worldwide crisis like many of us have never experienced.
I don’t know where you are today if you are gradually finding your rhythm and beginning to enjoy sheltering in place with your families, if you are overwhelmed by anxiety over how you will continue to provide during this season, if you are grieving the loss of loved ones, of security, of hopes and dreams that are now impossible. But regardless of where we stand, the Word of God is trustworthy and true, and it is applicable to our lives here and now.
I wanted to share with you some of the scripture that I held onto during the darkest half of last year, that I repeated to myself over and over during anxious, sleepless nights. Now, these are my prayers for you, for our world, that in the midst of ever uncertain circumstances, we would know a sure and certain God who loves us and holds us in the midst of even coronavirus.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seems, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God though our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given to us.
Romans 5:1-5
The thing these verses both have in common is that they both start with “therefore” which reminds us to look at the verses before. In both of these verses, the therefore is referring to the already-fulfilled promise of Jesus dying for our sins and being raised to life for our justification and salvation for all eternity.
Because He died and rose for our salvation, we do not lose heart. Because He died and rose for our salvation, we can look forward to eternity with Him (unseen) rather than despairing over our current circumstances. Because He died and rose for our salvation, we have hope, not only that He will be glorified, but that He will use our suffering here and now to make us into who we were meant to be and that He will ultimately bring us to be with Him in Heaven for all of eternity.
Both of these passages of scripture challenge us to shift our perspective, to focus on that which is to come, not that which is happening now. I will be the first to say that sometimes our trials do not seem light and momentary at all. How could we say this about a virus that is claiming lives? Can we say this when our child is hospitalized? Can we say this when we have lost our jobs and we can no longer afford to put food on the table for our families? Can we say this when people all over the world are starving and hurting and dying? We can. Because none of this is outside of the sovereignty of God and no matter how difficult it is now, none of it will be wasted. And all of it will be made beautiful in eternity.
Continue Reading: “Lord, you are trustworthy.” – Part 2