Crisis? Where is God Now?
During this time of national and even global crisis, it is difficult to maintain our trust when we cannot see God moving and working through the crisis. We can see the president, the doctors and nurses, service members, and food workers, but where is God working to protect and help His people? In 2016, when my boss laid me off, we struggled for three years with a sparsely populated refrigerator and pantry. We lived off of savings and retirement funds to make the house payments, car payments, and utility bills. During this time, I never saw God’s hand working to ensure support us, even though God promised He would be working. God told us these things through Jesus so that we can have faith in times of trouble (John 16:33).
Why can’t we see the work God is doing?
Not until afterward, when my struggles ended, could I look past the problems and see my Father’s protection. I knew He was there, and I knew He continued His work, but I could not see Him doing anything. People are naturally visual beings. We process visual data 60,000 times faster than textual data, which is vital because 90% of the information that enters our brain is visual. We live and survive by sight, and God knows this – He created us. Knowing that we will always trust what we can see, God challenges us to rely not on seeing that He is working, but rather too, believing that He always works on our behalf. God wants us to learn to trust in Him and His promises.
Faith Pleases God
Faith in God pleases Him, not by the experience of seeing
Him work while He helps, but in our anticipation of a perfect outcome. For without faith, the knowledge and trust that God protects us, God is not pleased (Hebrews 11:6). God does not want us to live and trust by sight, but rather to rely on Him, living through faith (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Crisis: What is God doing when people are suffering and dying?
God is at work (Psalms 68:19). When the Pharisees challenged Jesus for healing on the sabbath, He answered, telling them that the Father is at work, even now, when we cannot see Him working (John 5:17). Do not give into the fear.
There Will Come A Day
There will come a day when we will look back and can clearly see what God did today, during our time of national, and for many of us, personal crisis. Expect amazement at the hand of God, moving throughout our land to carry this nation through. You will look back and see God’s protection, and feel His love, not today, but certainly tomorrow. God’s plan today is for you to have faith, not sight, knowing that He is always working for good for those that love the Lord (Romans 8:28). So, take advantage of this time of crisis and tell a friend, neighbor, or loved one so that they too can see God working for them.