We are living in uncertain times. Who would have thought our cities, nation or most countries of the world would be fighting a health crisis like COVID19? This has changed our plans or at the very least delayed them. How do we live well with this uncertainty?
I love to plan and this pandemic was not in my plan. It just happened. And life has changed in an extreme way. I want answers. I want to know when this will be over so I can resume what’s “normal” again.
Prayer: Oh Lord, you know my heart so well. I feel like I need to know what’s going to happen. I do think planning is good but I also need faith in You, which means a good deal of not knowing and trusting in You. Lord, help me to be kind to myself and leave space for unanswered questions. Really, is my faith so weak that I have to know the outcome of everything?
God’s Word to Us: You are precious to me and it’s My job, and really my pleasure, to know every detail about you and your future. I carry it around like a glass silver ball. It is fragile and I won’t drop it. But you can’t know everything about your future. It would crush you. There is too much to know. So a little at a time, I lead you to the pieces you should know. Yes, they stretch you but they won’t bury you.
What He meant by “glass silver ball” was the glass is fragile and the silver is reflective. We cannot see what’s inside but we see ourselves when we look at it. We know who we are right now but the future holds secrets we are not ready for. God in his mercy shields it from us. We are to live in today, making the best of life today even if it doesn’t go according to our plans.
My Heart’s Cry was to make sense of my life. I knew my faith was being challenged. My plans are changing now. I notice I say “if” a lot when I mention what I’m going to do. It reminds me of the verse that says
You who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and
will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”
How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?
Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.
What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to,
we will live and do this or that.”
Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans,
and all such boasting is evil.
Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
We are uncertain about tomorrow.
I’m challenging myself especially in these uncertain times to mirror what the Bible says, If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do such and such… How sobering is it to say something like that? I’ve been saying if this Coronavirus goes away soon we can still do such and such. If I line my words up with the Bible then I’ve been saying it wrong. The correct response would be “If the Lord wants my daughter to she will fly to Grandma’s this Summer.” So even if you are not certain, you are still being truthful in your thought process and your communication.
We are certain about today.
We are certain about today, so plan today. Live in today. Love today. What is something you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t had time? Most of our commitments at this point have been canceled. So we get this pocket of time to use for different goals. Currently I have chosen a couple a projects. One by myself and one with my husband.
- The project with my husband. In our pre-Covid-19 life, our plan was to repipe the house. In preparation, the shelving units that line the back wall of the garage need to be removed. We have the time to do the work now. This is another time I get to practice saying, “If the Lord wants us to, and we live and have money left in savings then we will do the re-pipe.”
- The project by myself. I needed to find a quiet project because my husband is on conference calls for work. I decided to go through my children’s photos and pair them down to the best photos. This has been a good project to do during this downtime.
I encourage you to use this time to do something useful and to get your minds occupied with something other than the crisis. Then when it is all over you can say. “well at least I got something done.”
I leave you with these verses that have always comforted me and reminded me to trust in God and take one day at a time.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.”
“So don’t worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
What can you do today? Pray and ask the Lord for wisdom in these uncertain times. Maybe He would show you how to meet someone else’s needs. (That’s a whole other blog post). Remain open to what God has for you today.
May God bless you and give you peace.
Kim
James 4: 13-16
Proverbs 3:5-6
Matthew 6:34
These are the verses used above in italics. They are from the New Living Translation. If you are looking for a Bible online Bible Gateway is a good one.