We live in a fallen world and with that comes hardship. Whether it’s a personal health crisis, or a community-felt crisis like this pandemic and social injustices, suffering will happen. In our social media saturated world, it can be easy to give in to fear and anxiety as our feeds are flooded with information and opinions. When these hardships come, how do you react?
While suffering might be the very thing we need to help us grow we must understand that even in the middle of it that it is the thing that when we are faithful in the midst of it, is producing a crown of glory. God promises that my suffering is somehow producing life that I don’t understand.
Even Moses standing before a burning bush was reminded by God almighty that he need not approach in haste or to consider the ground where God had chosen to meet with Moses as ordinary. Moses was cautioned to keep his distance and to remove his sandals. God declared who He was and Moses hides his face from God because Moses is afraid.
She walked in and sat down in her class room. Then the unthinkable happened. A boy she hardly knew burst into her classroom with a gun. He presses it to her head and asks her, “Do you believe in God?” I’m sure the question rang through her ears, as all sounds and thoughts came to a screeching halt jammed up into that moment, she responded, “Yes, I believe in God.” She lost her life for those few words. But there was something that she realized. She knew that when God is on the throne she had no reason to fear the cost or consequence of trusting in Him.