When life nailed my faith, fear captured
And imprisoned my liberating hope
The weight of current events crushed
Sweet dreams into miserable pieces
Failure moved in next door: alone
I turned my back to hide my face
From threatening uncertainties ahead.
When I should have called to mind
The faithfulness of the God who saves
When I should have stepped out
To make the most of His lavish grace
I headed back, choosing the grave
Where I last felt His presence
To the mountains of His promised return.
Hades flaunted His death certificate
Claiming He was gone for good
Ranting I was done for good
I heeded the lie until His voice
Found me out and woke me up;
“Why seek the living among the dead?”
In a flash, truth crystalized in my heart
“He is true, always true, and He lives
I’m not alone, not forsaken, as He promised:
God is forever in me, with me!”
Life sometimes shoves us into a lurch, leaving us in a deluge of spinning evil we did nothing to ignite. Living get scary that we are left at a loss of how to respond to the things coming at us. We read fictions and marvel at how warped the author’s mind must be to concoct such heinous scenes. We read of similar or worse in the news and it sounds like fairy tale from another planet of which we are immune. Then it shows up on our door and our lives are altered, sometimes shattered by events we did not engineer. And no matter our innocence, we are left no choice but victims of circumstances beyond our control, possibly pawn in the game board of players without conscience. Yet, life goes on.
Exploiting such situations, fear rises, threatening faith, standing between us and courage. Feeling besieged, we are tempted, even encouraged to flee into hiding. It is said that the guilty runs when no one pursues but life has also revealed the innocent running and hiding as a result of being overwhelmed and at loss of next steps. God seems some ways away from where we are stuck. His voice shrouded by threats aimed at intimidating weary faith. With majority on the other side, we turn away disappointed, we feel alone, smeared, abandoned, forsaken, either unable or unwilling to kick-start faith in His sure promises.
Yet, God’s Word to us at such times is, “Do not be afraid. I am with you. Do not be dismayed, I will be with you until the end.” It is the same thing He said centuries ago that He yet speaks to us because God does not change. Neither does His Word. Irrespective of the peculiarities of our circumstance, God is the same from age to age. Our times and ways may change but His steadfast love, sure promises and proven faithfulness are never altered or shattered by events as we are prone to.
Whatever may be your case today, I encourage you like I encourage myself everyday: trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6. His Word assures us that though people and things may, He will never let us down, never leave us alone. Thus we can boldly say, ‘God is my help and my comfort, my ever present help in times of need. And if God be for me, what can man do against me?
Glory!