This week, I begin a new series intending to direct our hope during these times. You can listen to the sermon by clicking here. Below are a few highlights. I hope you will take the time to listen.
These moments are new to us but not unprecedented. Christians have faced many times of trouble. An early Christian reminds us, “God is not sought from the height of arrogance but is recollected in modest lowliness.” Lowliness is our moment. God is there, still. In our seeking of God, what will he teach us during these days? Prayerfully God will find us responding well during these days. The same Christian reminds us again, “It is precisely what we learn in repose that we utter in tribulation. The words of the Law are learned in leisure, but their fruit is demonstrated in affliction.” (Cassiodorus, d.585)
Our world is ripe with longing. We long to go back to our normal routine. We long for all the things we think we will miss. These moments are God bending our souls. Sure, many will regrettably go and seek satisfaction in other places. They will have their fill of the so-called “pleasures of the world.” But, the lesson for us during these times is clear: Only God satisfies. There can be no substitute for satisfaction in God.
God is up to something these days. I see God bending our souls by breaking up the normal; by giving us a heightened awareness of just how vulnerable we are – he knows our frame; he is mindful that we are but dust (Ps. 103:14). God is also showing us that most things we held dear are nothing more than dust in the wind. At this moment he is reminding us, things will no always go on as they always have. This interruption is a foretaste of a greater interruption he has promised. His final interruption will be the ushering in of a time of no more interruptions, no more sin, no more sickness, no more dying, no more tears. My heart longs for that day! Does yours?
Jacob served Laban 14 years for Rachel.
Joseph was thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused, thrown into prison before he was elevated to second in command of all of Egypt.
David fled from Saul for years after he was anointed, king.
Jesus faced the Cross before the Empty Tomb.
For us, the only way to come to Jesus is by denying ourselves, taking up a cross and following him.
The road to glory is a road of suffering. This is the way God has called us to walk. First the thorns before the crown.
“In your intense longing for God, you hear the reviling of your enemies, do not give way to fear but know that such a longing bears an immortal fruit, and comfort your soul with hope in God. When you are uplifted by this, and earthly sorrow has been assuaged a little, say Psalm 42.” ATHANASIUS, On the Interpretation of the Psalms
May the Lord use these times to draw us close to himself. Again, here is the link to the full sermon.
Soli Deo Gloria