This week our daughter Sarah got the call from her doctor no one wants to get. Thankfully, thyroid cancer is highly treatable and the specialist was very reassuring.
The shock came, we prayed together and God began to meet her, and us.
Like you, we have experienced times in life when that curve ball just seems to hit. But the worst thing we can do is worry about when it’s going to come. Corrie ten Boom always used to say that you don’t get the ticket till you get to the station. I happened to see a video a few days ago of Professor John Lennox of Oxford University, one of the world’s great defenders of the faith. Professor Lennox told the story of being admitted to hospital only to find out his chest pains were far more serious than thought. He had to undergo immediate surgery, and the chances of him surviving were low. At that moment, the peace of God enveloped him. He said good bye to his wife in the assurance that, whatever happened, the Lord was with him. And miraculously, he came through.
I’m glad he did, because he has a message we need to hear. When the storm hits, God is there for you. Why the storm hits us instead of someone else we will never know until we meet the Lord face to face. But as Professor Lennox said, God meets you in the moment when you need him.
We can all look ahead with fearfulness to the future challenges facing us. The tried and true tactic of the enemy is to push us to live in the speculation of what might or might not happen, and humanly speaking, we can never completely avoid that. But Jesus promised to give us grace for today. Tomorrow, he said, would look after itself.
What I understand him to be saying is that it is always in the today that God meets us. Worrying about the future is trying to control the future, and that is God’s job. This frees us to appreciate the fact that when God meets us with his incomparable peace in the present, that peace becomes his promise and our assurance that he will be there for us tomorrow and the day after. Instead of fretting about the future, we can put our hope in the God who controls it.
We are resurrection people. We are people whose ultimate hope is not in this life anyway. If we die, all we do is change our place of residence. And, as Dr Murray Harris taught me at seminary in Chicago many years ago, God guarantees our life as long as he needs us here on earth.
If your boat is rocking in the storm, he’s headed across the waters in your direction right now. You won’t sink.
One of the shortest prophecies in the Bible came through Haggai to a fearful people. All he said was this: “I am with you.” But that was enough.
Today is a gift for each of us to live for Christ. Don’t let tomorrow’s worries steal today’s peace.
He is with you.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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