Believing in Crisis

Well, it has been a hot minute since I have been in touch with y’all. I am giving myself a pass though since we are in the midst of a pandemic and we are all trying to navigate uncharted waters we were not prepared for 😊. I will tell you, 2020 has been the year of weird. This is the only way I know how to put it.

Lots has happened this year. We are starting to come out of one of the most historic Presidential elections of our lifetime. We are still walking through the devastation caused by COVID-19, both mentally and physically. The history of American racial injustice once again reared its head and became so completely personal to the heart of a nation when we felt the pain and anguishing sorrow from George Floyd’s death. Churches were ushered into an online worship experience while being tasked with responding to and navigating the intense cultural, emotional, and physical pain residing in our nation. Still, these things have not ended but rather, continue to linger. We all await with anticipation the outcomes of everything we have gone through in 2020, with many unknowns still to come for 2021. For lack of better terminology, we are treading water navigating a historic crisis on multiple levels that cuts deep and extends wide. My question is how do we persevere and not lose our belief/faith in the heavenly hope of the kingdom of God in the midst of all this – regardless of what is to come next? I have some words and thoughts I want to impress upon you as I hope they will encourage you to keep your belief/faith in the power of our great God alive.

It can be easy to say God is good and all powerful in everything. To actually believe His power is mighty when it looks – and most importantly feels – like the world is crashing down around us is a hard feat to attempt on our own. We absolutely do not have the strength nor the ability to continue believing in the midst of crisis. This power to hold on to our belief/faith that God is stronger and better than everything going on only comes from the saving grace of Jesus being activated in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We alone do not have the ability to remain faith-filled in our belief that God is stronger than the evil around us. 2020 has proven to us we are weak and left without answers; this world is clearly not our end destination.

We are on a journey and God has given us the hope of Jesus to keep us believing in God’s power when we go through valleys. The beauty of God’s grace is how it enables us to live and act like Jesus because of His conquering power over sin and over death itself. Give yourself permission to be okay with not being able to find the ability to believe. But do not for one second abandon the will or belief that Jesus has not already given you Himself to keep your faith alive in the moments you are strong, as well as in the deeply contested moments you are weak to keep the faith. The Holy Spirit is able to produce in you the faith you need to believe in God. Take confidence in this and hold on to it. It is liberating to let God Himself cause you to believe when you cannot find the willpower to believe God in the moment life is crashing down.

Another fascinating and beautiful hope we have been given to sustain our faith in moments of crisis is the very blessing of the Trinity itself. God does not exist as one person. He exists in three persons as one God. The beauty of the Trinity is we get a triple whammy of heavenly infused power to activate and sustain our faith in all of God Himself. Think about the magnificent and amazing gift this is to the children of God. We are not only given Jesus as our King, we are also given the Father who watches over us and the Holy Spirit who dwells within us every moment of our daily life. It is one of the deepest revelations of God’s love manifested to us on a very personal level – we often miss this beauty. It truly is transformational. See some of my thoughts below:

• God the Father is the great potter in whose hands we abide and He remains our protector forever and always. Unrestrained access to His throne is made possible because of the power of the resurrection of Jesus. {II COR 1:3-4; Isaiah 64:8}
• The Holy Spirit is the one who is able to give us recall of the truths of God in those moments we need it most. He is the revealer of God’s will for us and He is always with us – even in crisis. He is also the vessel that pours out the daily, constant reminders of the LOVE God has for us and expresses to God our prayers when we cannot find the words to pray. {John 14:26; Romans 5:5; Romans 8:26}
• Jesus – the Son of God and Son of Man – intercedes for us in constant prayer to God on our behalf. He can do this because He walked through the valley of death and He absolutely knows the sufferings humanity goes through here on earth. The heart of the matter is God Himself knows how to relate to us because of His Son Jesus. {Romans 8:34; Hebrews 12:3-4}

As if God’s lovingly profound blessing of the Trinity is not enough for us to believe He sustains our faith during crisis, He also gives us the power of His revealed promises in the Word of God. We are living in the age of the new Covenant in which God has already revealed His living Word to us through the Holy Scriptures. What we have now in crisis mode is direct promises from the mouth and heart of God written for us. We are able to cling to these whatever and whenever the circumstance. I have included a few of my top five favorite promises from God below:

• God will never leave us nor forsake us. {Hebrews 13:5}
• If we endure the trial of this life, we will reign with Him in heaven. {II Timothy 2:12}
• God is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. {Psalm 34:18}
• God’s plans and thoughts for us are not to harm us but rather, are for peace and our future. {Jeremiah 29:11}
• God is always guiding our paths if we are following Him alone. It is a promise. {Proverbs 3:5-6}

As I transition to my final words, I want to remind you that the Holy Scripture is rich with the powerful words you need to take God at His word, always. The gospel is the most transformational, life-giving force to ever have been gifted to mankind. The final reminder here is in the power of the cross. If you know Jesus and follow Him, you have passed from death to new life because of the victory won at the cross. If the story ended at death on the cross, we Christians would be the most pitied people on the planet because we would have no hope in its power (Paul’s words, not mine). The only reason the crucifixion is so vital to sustaining our faith is because the resurrection was the power that provided the ability for the death on the cross to mean something absolutely life giving: eternity with God and liberation from the sting of sin (death).

The resurrection is the key that unlocks the power this new life produces in us on behalf of heaven. We must never fail to remember that salvation was not just a once and done deal. It is ongoing because of the resurrection. It daily renews and redeems us making the indwelling of the Holy Spirit possible because God knows we have accepted the reality that Jesus is our payment and our saving faith forever. It all rests on Jesus’ debt paying it all and us owing it all to Him in crisis and in prosperity.

I hope this has been a blessing to your heart and encourages you to press in to God’s heart through prayer so He can provide you the strength to press on. As we seek His heart and praise Him – especially when we do not feel like it – something supernatural happens. The fullness and richness that is all of God delivers on His promise to keep you in His perfect peace and then some more. This is the power of God producing faith in us to believe His saving grace in crisis.