...hope

 “with this pandemic at hand, when will life get back to normal?” 

What do we do now? Three biblical answers 

Let’s consider three answers

Run to God. 

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (v. 1). a “refuge” is a place where we go to escape, to be sheltered and safe. But we must choose to go there. If we think we can face the storm unaided, a refuge cannot help us. 

So go to God every time fear finds you. The Hebrew word for refuge is literally translated, “a place to which we flee.” Don’t walk—run. 

Flee to your Father’s help, power, love, and grace. Seek and trust the strength he offers. 

Refuse to yield to fear. 

“Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea” (v. 2). 

We can only refuse our fears after we have gone to God (2 Timothy 1:7). 

We cannot prevent the emotion of fear, but we can refuse to yield to it. 

We can name it and then take it specifically and immediately to God in prayer. 

We can say, “Lord, I am afraid for my job” or “my health” or “my family.” 

We can ask him for the courage to trust our fears to him. 

Rest in faith. 

The psalm quotes our Lord: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (v. 10). One day there will be a new heaven and a new earth with no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:1–4). 

Until that day, we can know that "the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress” (Psalm 46:11). No matter where we go, we go with God. That’s why our Father says we can “be still” in the knowledge that “I am God” (v. 10). 

Your Father is God. 

You can run to him, bring your fears to him, and rest in him today.

“An unlimited faith in the giver of all good things” 

We can hope in hope—hope that the pandemic will end soon; hope that scientists will find a vaccine or treatment; hope that things won’t be as bad as they could be. Or we can hope in God. 

In With Open Hands, Henri Nouwen noted: “A person with hope does not get tangled up with concerns for how his wishes will be fulfilled. So, too, his prayer is not directed toward the gift, but toward the one who gives it. His prayer might still contain just as many desires, but ultimately it is not a question of having a wish come true but of expressing an unlimited faith in the giver of all good things . . .For the prayer of hope it is essential that there are no guarantees asked, no conditions posed, and no proofs demanded, only that you expect everything from the other without binding him. Hope is based on the premise that the other gives only what is good. Hope includes an openness by which you wait for the other to make his loving promise come true, even though you never know when, where or how this might happen.” With Open Hands, Henri Nouwen

Is your hope in hope, or is your hope in God today?

-jim denison