Introduction
With everything going on due to the Coronavirus, there has been yet another opportunity for me to learn to trust God. It’s a stressful time for most people, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t stressed at all. While I’m not particularly worried about my job security like some are right now, I’m adjusting to a new situation in life. For the first time in years, everyone is home. It’s not just me, my parents, and a few of my younger siblings. It’s all eight of us, and that hasn’t been the case since I was eighteen and graduated from high school.
It might not seem like that much to complain about considering what everyone else is dealing with, and admittedly, it’s not. But with everyone home, tempers run high, and people get stressed. Working from home, while it has its perks, isn’t as wonderful when you have everyone at home making noise or interrupting you to do things during work hours. And in all of that, there’s the temptation to lash out, get angry, and lose it on the people around you, especially when you can’t go anywhere.
Learning to Trust in the Storm
I’m not the most patient person in the world, so this has definitely been a learning situation and a trust situation to boot. I’m having to learn to trust that God can help me stay calm and patient with people around me. Those who know me more personally know that along with not being very patient, I also am not very trusting. I struggle with trusting people, and I struggle with trusting God. While I’ve learned to trust Him on some things, it’s an ongoing process with each new thing, it seems like. (Apparently, I’m not a very fast learner or the concept is just not quite computing.)
But, as difficult as it can be, I appreciate the opportunities to learn to trust. Maybe not at the exact moment I’m being tested, but afterwards, I do. A few months ago, it was trusting God while I was looking for a job. I determined that I wasn’t going to stress about it because stressing meant I wasn’t trusting God. I also determined that, aside from those family members who already knew and were praying for me, I wasn’t going to ask for prayer. Probably sounds a bit weird, but in my head, I needed to go through the struggle alone. It wasn’t something that I felt I should share because it felt like it was between me and God. I needed to go to Him on my own without relying on others’ prayers for me. Normally, I wouldn’t do that with something. I’m all for asking for prayer when I’m struggling through something hard, but that was one learning experience I just felt needed to happen alone.
And God got me through it. He helped me to grow, and He showed me that there wasn’t a need to worry. That was the least stressful job hunt I have ever gone through even though I only ever heard back from one company on an interview months after I started looking.
Now I’m in another situation to learn to trust God. To trust Him to provide, aid, and bolster. Being stuck at home every day with no ability to leave unless I absolutely have to in order to get meds or shop makes me feel claustrophobic and trapped. It would be easy for me to get worried, frazzled, and scared like so many people have. It would be easy to look at everything going on around me and wonder what I’m supposed to do with everything going to pieces around me.
Instead, I’ve chosen something else. I’ve chosen to trust God. To believe that He will get me through this and help me to respond in a way that honors and glorifies Him in spite of what’s going on. I have chosen to remember the God that I serve and who He is.
Psalm 46 – A Very Present Help In Trouble
The Scripture that has been most on my mind of late has been Psalm 46. I learned this through a song by Judy Rogers called Refuge. (If you’ve never heard it, you should go listen to it. It’s a perfect reminder for the times we’re living in, in my opinion.) I’ve put the Psalm below (KJV version), and I’ll explain why it’s been such a help during this time of storm in a moment.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early.
The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Why Look to These Verses?
These verses have been an amazing comfort to me because they remind me of a few things about God. First and foremost, He is in control. He could stop the virus, but He has chosen not to. Granted, I wouldn’t say the virus itself is a good thing, but God has already been using it for good. In China, there are already stories of how local and government authorities have received the word of God from Christians they would ordinarily persecute because those Christians were willing to serve God and risk their own lives to help others. We don’t see that in America and, in fact, the prevailing attitude among many Christians I’ve seen talking on Facebook posts has been that we need to take care of the temple God has given us.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t, but ultimately, if God is glorified by us being tortured, persecuted, killed, or getting sick and dying helping others, then we are actually a hindrance to His work and His glory by trying to take care of ourselves. So often, that is an excuse to allow fear in situations like this to keep us from doing what we know God would want us to do. Obviously, right now, many of us are in states with shelter in place regulations. We can’t go out on the streets to pass out Bibles and face masks like the Chinese Christians did, and if we were to disobey our local authorities in this matter, it wouldn’t be very God honoring. Not to mention there would be very little point in doing so because who would be around to see it in many cases? But the point is that many of us in America are so wracked by fear and a me-first mentality that we can’t even fathom the idea of risking life and limb to trust God and do what He asks even if it’s dangerous.
So the first thing I see is that God is in control and is using this for His glory. Just as it says in the tenth line of the Psalm, Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. He is doing just that. He is exalting His name through this virus in spite of the fear and the attitude of distrust many Christians in many countries, including our own, have displayed. That alone should be a comfort because we know that even what others view as evil can be turned for good in an amazing, miraculous way.
But the second thing I see from this is that we have an amazing God who is our refuge and our strength. I don’t need to be afraid because He is in control and He is my refuge. No matter what happens–even if I get sick and die–He is working everything out for His glory and my good. Ultimately, if my death brings Him glory, who am I to argue? I am given the greatest gift I could be given in that moment because I am dying to give Him the glory and I know I’ll go to be with Him. Paul says in Philippians 1:20-21 “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
It is an honor and a privilege to live for Christ and nothing but gain to die for Him too. So if I know He is in control, that even death is a gain, and that He is my refuge, why would I fear? Why wouldn’t I trust? Sometimes, I look at myself and am amazed that I have such an easy time trusting on the big things and such a hard time with smaller things. But I’m human, and that’s one of my particular shortcomings. Nonetheless, I’m grateful for His calling and His faithfulness to work in me the good work He chose to begin. And in this area of trust, He continues to give me chances to grow.
Struggling with Trust
Maybe you’re also struggling with trust. Maybe you look around you and see everyone panicking, and you too feel a little twinge of fear, an urge to take things beyond what is wise or full of temperance and moderation. It’s easy to see everyone else freaking out and feel like we should too, isn’t it? But if you’re in Christ, if you know Him as your Master and your Savior, you too can hold onto the promises made throughout Scripture. You can say along with Paul that to live is Christ and to die is gain. You can hold onto the promise in 2 Timothy 1:7 where Paul writes to Timothy that “God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Take it from your own experience and from someone else who has been in plenty of storms where she chose not to trust God. It’s so much better to let Him have control. In the end, He does whether you admit it or not. The only thing you do by trying to wrest it from His grasp is stress yourself out, scare yourself, and add additional pressure into your life that doesn’t need to be there. If you’re doing this, trust me, you’re not alone. I’ve done it. I’m very prone to doing it. But if I can learn to let Him take charge without being afraid and stressed out, so can you.
The takeaway today is this. If you’re His child today and you’re stressing out or scared about what might happen due to the current world events or what has already happened because of this virus, stop. Take a deep breath and go to Him with your fears and concerns. You may have something He wants you to do, but I can guarantee that if you don’t stop and pray first, you are going to take on a whole lot of things He doesn’t want you to do, and you may even miss doing what He does want you doing.
So pray. Ask Him to take away your fear and replace it with His peace that passes all understanding. Let Him in. He cares for you, and even when things are hard, He wants to work in your life and will work things out for your good whether you understand how it’s to your good or not. Trust Him. He knows more than you ever could. As the Psalm I quoted here said, He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. That hasn’t changed. It never will. And so, you are able to also say you don’t fear even if the earth is destroyed, the mountains thrown into the sea, and the waters roar and are troubled.
