These last months have been a massive test for all of us. Our apple carts have been overturned, and the end is not quite yet in sight.
As Christians, we understand that we live in a fallen world in which the presence of sin and evil is our fault, not God’s. We let the enemy in and must suffer the consequences.
Yet God is still in control. If he isn’t in control, he isn’t the God the Bible presents to us. And that leaves us in a predicament. We are struggling with how all the dislocations we have suffered can be understood in the light of God’s love and his plan for us.
Like you, we have been in that struggle. Two questions arise for all of us. How did we go into it, and how are we going to come out of it?
Back in March, we arrived home in Canada to face the cancellation of a ministry trip. This turned into the cancellation of two more trips to the UK, a trip to India and probably a trip to Greece. Little did we know that our daughter Sarah’s wedding would be indefinitely postponed because her fiancé couldn’t get into the country, or that she would receive a diagnosis of thyroid cancer. I’m glad I didn’t know all that at the beginning!
The first thing I did was to make the decision to submit to God’s will. I complained a bit, but I did it. If he was in charge and had a goal in mind, then either I go along with it or wind up fighting God. His purposes in the world were far more important than how they affected my personal circumstances. So as best I could, I brought my will into alignment with his. What happened was that when one door closed, several others opened. Even in Sarah’s case, we are beginning to see the outlines of God’s grace at work.
That brings me to the question of how we come out of this. The answer to that question will be determined by how we walked with the Lord in the midst of it, and how we learned to have our plans adjusted by him. One of the best things that happened to me was a renewal of my prayer life. That helped a lot in discerning his hand at work around me. If you stop complaining long enough to pray, things take on a different perspective.
The Bible says very clearly that God works all things together for good for those who love him. The “all things” Paul is talking about in Romans 8 are the “sufferings of this present age.” Wow — sounds just like a worldwide pandemic.
Suffering in the Bible is often the birth pains to something new God wants to do. God is shaking a fallen world’s arrogant confidence in itself, but he is also calling a complacent church to repentance and back to its first love. That includes you and me.
God wants all of us to come out of this better than we went into it. If our scrapes and bruises along the way serve to draw us closer to him, and enable him to do things in us and through us he would never have done otherwise, it will all have been worth it. And then some.
Let’s help each other in the struggle.
We’ll need all hands on deck for the great things that are to come.
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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