Delighting in God During Difficult Times

Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels
Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.  - Psalm 37:3-5

If you're like me then you're a rare bird indeed because I'm actually enjoying my time in quarantine. I'm enjoying getting up early and not having to rush out to catch a bus to get to work to sit under florescent lighting and deal with the attitudes of people. Yet, there are things that I do miss. I miss physically gathering with my Church Family and there are even people on my job that I miss seeing. I'm also not so foolish as to think that just because I'm doing okay that others are too and it's with that in mind that I want to take a few moments to encourage those who may be having a hard time.
This Psalm gives us a clear path to true delight and the first step is to trust in the Lord. Faith isn't faith when everything is going our way. It's only in times of difficulty and challenge that we find out if our faith is genuine. Do we have faith in faith or do we have faith in The Lord. Trust is not based in sentiment. It's very much black and white. I think of my brother Jaron. If he says he's coming to get me in five minutes, I'm outside in three because I know he'll be there and he's more than likely going to be a little early. This comes from spending time with him and getting to know him. If he's going to be late, he's in touch to let me know why. I don't second guess him. I trust him.
The second thing is to do good. In a time of isolation and hoarding we need to seek out ways to serve others. The more we make our life about us and the more time we spend navel-gazing the more depressed we're going to be. Volunteers are needed all across the nation and if we're in a position to help then let's do all we can. I just read a story about a young woman in my city who decided to help get groceries for the elderly in her neighborhood and she's not doing it through an app. She just reached out and is responding to those who responded to her. She talked about how that helped to lift her out of her own funk. Ask God to show us how we can help during this time. As Fred Rogers once said,"Don't just look for the helpers, learn how to be one."
Finally we are to commit our way to The Lord. One of the things that I think this quarantine is doing is its stripping us of all our idols. All the things we depend are showing their shakiness. They're being exposed for the false sense of security that they are. Government officials and doctors are confounded, the economy is in shambles, everything that seemed solid is faltering. Jesus is The Rock of Ages. It is in Him that we are to trust. We build our life upon His Word. God's Word will never fail and of His kingdom there is no end. It's not wrong to want good government but if that's where our hope is we're going to be disappointed every time. It's not wrong to work and get paid but even that is not a firm foundation! We live our life in Christ, trusting in the sovereignty of God.
I want to encourage us to find what stirs our affections for Jesus and what dampens it. Make a list if it helps and then ask God to draw us to Himself. It is my prayer that at the end of this I will truly be able to say with a true heart, "You can have this whole world. Just give me Jesus." I pray that for you as well.

In Christ,
Storm

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