How to FEEL (and COVID-19)
What a world we live in.
Over the past few months, you and I have had lots of unexpected events introduce themselves into daily life.
Natural Disasters
Economic Uncertainty
Global Pandemics
During times like these, we need to be reminded of who God is and how we should respond. It is often during times of uncertainty, unrest, and IN the storm that we are most in need of an anchoring point.
If you’re like me, my first instinct during times like these is worry and anxiety. I begin to wonder how this will play out. “How long it will take? Will I be simply inconvenienced or am I in real danger?”
If you’ve thought like that recently, do you know what that makes you? A person. Those are normal, natural, and reasonable thoughts.
We all want to know:
How will this affect my financial future?
What can I do to keep my children and loved ones safe?
What does this mean for my daily life?
What makes times like these difficult is that these feelings really don’t have an expiration date or ending point. We wake up with these feelings like a low grade fever that won’t go away. It’s as though there’s nowhere to turn to find relief or rest.
What we discover is that the usual methods we use to run away from our axiety- places like entertainment, sports, busy schedules, and even social media- are no longer able to distract us away from our feelings of dread. In fact, what you may have discovered over the past week is that your feelings of anxiety, fear, and worry are only heightened by your normal escape outlets.
It is during this time that we need a place to find hope, rescue, and rest.
We need the grace of God.
We need God’s specific grace. We need somewhere to turn when we FEEL like the author of Psalm 71 who wrote,
“Lord, I seek refuge in you; let me never be disgraced. In your justice, rescue and deliver me; listen closely to me and save me.”
You can trust that God is still just, still a rescuer, still a deliverer. He still listens and He still saves.
However, these days are also an example of God’s common grace. That is to say, the way God thinks about us and acts toward us on a consistent basis.
It is God’s common grace to give us time to see that we need Jesus.
If you look at your life and see any instance of evil, pain, suffering, or sadness - that is an illustration of God’s grace in your life that He’s using to call you back to Himself.
I’m reminded of a story in the Bible that takes place just after Jesus had performed a miracle by feeding a large crowd. It’s in the gospel of Matthew in chapter 14.
22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 After dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Well into the night, he was there alone. 24 Meanwhile, the boat was already some distance from land, battered by the waves, because the wind was against them. 25 Jesus came toward them walking on the sea very early in the morning. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and they cried out in fear. 27 Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.
Isn’t that interesting? Jesus knew a storm was coming and he sent his friends into it.
Translation: Jesus is not caught off guard by storms.
God is not caught off guard by natural disasters, economic meltdowns, or even the Coronavirus.
There are some things that God will not take you around, but He will take you through. It is during those times that your response is not to figure it out, make all the necessary plans, or develop an expert opinion.
Remember: the boat was a long way off, the wind and waves were against the disciples. If you feel like the whole world is going crazy, like you don’t know how to make sense of it all, who to trust or where to turn… God’s grace for you is to see, just as the disciples saw, that Jesus is coming.
Pray This Today
God, come thou Fount of every blessing and tune our hearts and minds to see and to savor Your amazing grace. I pray, God, that You would send Your Spirit now thickly and mediate the presence of Christ. I pray that we would be reminded once again that You are in fact mighty to save. I pray that You would show us again that You are strong, show us that You are big. I pray that we would be liberated by the refreshing reminder of our smallness.
