I’m on edge, at least more than I normally am. This week it was the debacle of the Big Ten canceling college football (you might think it was prudent or you might have seen it coming miles away and knew it would happen. I’m not trying to pick a fight). Last week it was whether we would have in-person school in New Albany. Next week it will be . . . who knows?
There is a well-known statement that functions as a subtle curse: “May you live in interesting times.” In other words, “I hope you do not live in a peace and tranquility, but in turbulent unpredictability.” We are living it right now, and there are all kinds of reasons to be on edge (though many of them are relatively trivial). As Christians, no matter the times, we have the vast resources of the Word of God and the promises of God to help us through times like this. If we meditate on and trust in His Word and His promises, we may not have perfect peace, but we will have increasing peace. And we will be able to steadfastly endure through uncertainty and difficulty.
This week I helped my youngest daughter Annie install the Youversion Bible app. If you haven’t used this app, I highly recommend it. There are 100 or so of us at NAPC going through a Bible-in-a-year plan together which has been very encouraging and helpful. There are also hundreds of different reading plans and devotionals that are topical and point us to the Scriptures for wisdom and help. Annie and I just completed a 7-day devotional on anxiety and how to overcome it. She chose the topic. That alone is instructive! I don’t recall, at age 11, feeling like the weight of the world was on my shoulders and that I needed help with my worries, but many children, as well as adults, feel that way today. The last day of the devotional pointed us to Matthew 6:34:
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
The author of the devotional commented:
“If we worry about tomorrow and whatever we think it might bring, we’re trying to control something that’s actually under His control, not ours. We really have no idea what might happen tomorrow. We don’t even know what’s going to happen later today! However, we can know the One who controls today. And tomorrow. And forever.”
Friends, whatever we are facing, we can meditate on God’s Word and His promises in order to find peace.
This very simple and quick study with Annie encouraged both of us. We are on to another topic – prayer. Hopefully we will keep going, one topic at a time, day in and day out.
Friends, whatever we are facing, we can meditate on God’s Word and His promises in order to find peace. May we practice that peace among our unbelieving friends and neighbors, so that more people look to the only One who can rescue them from fear, sin and death – the Risen Christ.
Pastor David