As circumstances drastically changed the week schools and businesses closed, my internal state was completely calm. I realized that I am not afraid of death. I have eternal assurance in Christ.
Being an anxious, easily-stressed person, my reaction completely took me by surprise. It was a needed reminder that the Holy Spirit is the One who produces a supernatural sense of peace. I can’t manufacture this type of peace or will it into existence.
I’m also naturally a striver and go-getter, feeling like I have to do everything or nothing will get done. I tend to take responsibility for things that I don’t have control over. When praying with my sister about this one time, it clicked that this belief was rooted in my lack of trust in God.
Sometimes I feel like God isn’t doing enough, so I want to take matters into my own hands. Perhaps, this is also a lack of patience and due to my strong sense of justice. I want the world to be made right now, forgetting that God has a purpose in allowing suffering to prevail for reasons I can’t see in the present.
God is not surprised, confused or panicking. He is not alluded by the world falling apart.
The consistency in creation offers evidence of God’s unchanging nature. There is still 24-hours in a day, the sun continues to rise and set, and seasons change without a second thought to the global crisis.
There is so much peace to be found in trusting a reliable Savior, one who promises to never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6, 8), and whose steadfast love endures forever (Psalm 136).
I can trust in this kind of a God—a shelter in the midst of a storm, a refuge in times of uncertainty, and an ever present help in trouble.
In this season of stillness, my heart, mind and body can finally catch up with each other. I release control and submit to the Holy Spirit’s work, which is what the Gospel is in the first place.
The Gospel is the good news that Christ died for all of our sins so that we can have a relationship with a righteous, loving God. This is the best thing I’ve ever heard and sometimes seems too good to be true because it’s so contrary to modern culture.
In our world, one has to work extremely hard to “make it,” or earn a prestigious education, high-status job, and steady paycheck. The American dream, or pulling one’s self up by one’s bootstraps and reaping the reward of lots of things, is the opposite of the Gospel.
With God, none of these things impress Him. My best behavior could never compete with the perfection of a holy God. I could never work hard enough to earn God’s love, BUT the freeing thing is that I don’t have to. I am restored to a right relationship with God through grace alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).
I am at peace with God solely because of Christ’s sacrifice for me (Romans 5:1-2). I now rest in a reliable God, who alone holds the world in His capable, trustworthy hands.
This is true for now and always, no matter how things continue to change.