“I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread.”
– Psalm 37:25 (NKJV)
“The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”
– Psalm 34:10 (NKJV)
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
– Philippians 4:19 (NKJV)
Today I am thinking of all the people in my church, community, and nation that are losing or have lost their job or source of income. I am also mindful of those who have retirement monies in the stock market (as I do) and are watching their accounts diminish. People are anxious and candidly, fearful, about what the future holds. If you are a Christian you know that God holds the future, but when the culture is in chaos and life is tentative, panic is a real enemy.
I am intentionally reminding myself of this pandemic perspective because the Bible teaches me that every fact is established by the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses (2 Corinthians 13:1). One verse of Scripture should be enough to calm any doubt, however, if the Scripture makes multiple references to a principle, then I can rest assured that the principle is not only an inspirational reprieve from my panic, but a solid foundation to rest my life upon. That is why I posted 3 Scriptures above. I want to remind myself that I can take this principle and perspective to the bank (pun intended). God WILL meet any and all needs I may encounter. I will not be hung out to dry. I will not live in a box under a bridge. I will press through with His empowering grace and I shall see His hand move in amazing ways to meet all my needs. My season of prospering MAY be suspended for the moment (and I will get back to that concept in a future PPP), but for now I rest in the peace of knowing that God’s Word is not conditional upon the environment or the next announcement. Am I going to believe that or not?
As I ponder this again this morning, I am struck by the fact of how many times I live each day blind to the realization of my needs. Like many I suspect, I sail through life thinking that the ease and convenience of the moment has always been and shall always be. My sense of “normal” has probably been an affront to the goodness of God which has unrelentingly been released to me and around me. I forget that Jesus taught me to pray, “Give us this day our DAILY bread” (Matthew 6:11). Many of my global brothers and sisters know all too well the need of praying that prayer daily. As for me, here in America, not so much. So, today, I remind myself of that reality and realize that God can be trusted to meet EVERY need. Yes, He will get me toilet paper when the need arises. I know that sounds silly, but how many Christians were hoarding out of fear, rather than helping out of faith. I want spiritual integrity at this monumental time in our nation’s history.
So, I choose to rest and cease striving.
I choose to humble myself before the Lord and acknowledge I have needs only He can meet.
I repent from all selfishness and self-consumption which is a greater disease in my soul than CORVID-19 would be in my body.
One more time…I declare my allegiance to Him.
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