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Crisis' Are "Faith Growth" Opportunities
As we continue hunkered down at our homes, we long for the time when we can go back to our normal lives, when we can gather again to worship and to spend time with friends and family. But, are we really going back to normal? Do we really want to go back to the “normal” we recently waved goodbye? Is that really possible? This reminds me of the Israelites in the desert, once Moses had set them free from slavery in Egypt, in the midst of their first “freedom” crisis, they wanted to kill Moses their leader and go back to the land of slavery, because they thought it was better for them to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert! (Exodus 14:12); they were longing for their days back in Egypt when they had plenty of food (Numbers 11:4-5). Their new freedom status, brought about by the ‘shock’ of the exodus, God’s powerful dealings with Pharaoh, who stubbornly didn’t want to let them go free, had caused this crisis of a new adventure in the desert, a land with no food, or houses, or shelters, nor any type of stability for that matter.
But the desert experience, their new redemptive status by God’s power, was supposed to strengthen their faith. That’s why Moses pointed them to God’s word of promise and to put their faith in it: “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14). By God’s word, they were supposed to put their eyes in the Promised Land, a land filled with the blessing of God where they would live in peace and abundance and grow in the knowledge of their God.
Crisis are God’s ways of dealing with us. He wants to strengthen our faith in him and calls us to trust in His promises. In the midst of our current unparalleled crisis, by which we are deprived of our social life, which includes the privilege of worshipping together, we can rest assured that this is one way God is leading us back to His Word and to our most important relationships that need to be nurtured and strengthened.
Let us take this time of isolation not as reason to go back to ‘Egypt’ or to our “normal” lives but as an opportunity to come out changed, transformed in the image of God’s Son Jesus Christ. He himself experienced the agony of Gethsemane and the cross; he suffered the mockery and the beatings and was hung on the cross like a defeated king. But on the third day, He came back to life victorious, transformed physically and spiritually to give life and forgiveness to all who put their trust in Him. May God give you wisdom to use this ‘crisis’ as an opportunity to grow in your faith!
~ Pastor Adolfo Borges, Associate Pastor
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