In the past twenty-four months, our world, our nation, our community, and our lives have been upended in terms of our sense of security and safety. The future, for many, is nothing more than obliqueness veiled with the realistic possibility of sickness and death because of a pandemic that seems as if it will never end. Families near and far continue to fight the effects of the virus and its variants through therapeutics, physical distancing, masks, and time in quarantine. Not to mention the difficult road that many have trod as they have laid a loved one to rest during such a unique moment in history, whether that death was the result of the virus or not.
One of Satan’s greatest weapons is the unknown. For many, if not most, fear, anxiety, and panic are bred almost instantly when we come face to face with the unknown—and Satan thrives on this reality. It only takes one to look around at the circumstances, responses, comments, and so-called reporting today to see that this is the case. In all honesty, this pastor’s experience in recent weeks with so much sickness in my own family, has caused me to question how much more we (my family, specifically, and humanity, in general) can take. Then when COVID reared its head in my own body and I went from feeling fine to feeling horrible and getting worse a few hours later, the reality of the unknown sank in.
How would the virus affect me? Would my body be able to fight it off? Would the vaccine have any of its claimed effects? There are some really healthy men who have died from contracting the virus. Would I be one of them? What about my family? Would I end up giving it to them and watching one of them become the latest victim of the pandemic? What about the church? We are just really getting started and, while I know that Satan is working over-time to stop what the Lord is doing and accomplishing through this small group of believers, how do we continue to come together safely to worship? (It is my intention that the opportunity for us to gather and worship together be available as long as there is breath in my body.)
These are just a few questions—and there are so many more that there is not enough space to include in this writing. All these questions, regardless of their intent, stem from a response to the unknown manifesting itself differently for each of us. While praying through these questions and seeking the Lord for guidance, healing, comfort, and reassurance, a wonderful passage that we studied months ago came to mind. At the beginning of his letter to the Ephesian believers, the Apostle Paul wrote these words of encouragement and thankfulness for their progress in the faith that is in Christ,
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under his feet and gave Him as heave over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:15-23, emphasis mine).
Notice the bolded phrase, “that you may know.” These are simple words, but they are words that speak volumes to us when we come face to face with the unknown. When we contemplate the black abyss of the unknown that seems to stretch out endlessly before us, the only possible God-honoring response is to turn our minds towards the truth that we know—and that truth is completely outside of ourselves. Responses of fear, anxiety, and panic are responses that look inward, as if we, in all our human frailty, could possibly pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and conquer the unknown. This is the same idea as the old saying—an arrogant one, by the way—that, as believers in Christ, “we should have the courage to storm the gates of Hell with a water gun.” The idea behind such a statement is to develop in our minds a diminished view of the forces of evil and the Evil One. That’s not only dangerous, but it is also unbiblical. It stems from a response that looks inward to our own ego instead of outward to the truth of Scripture.
It is within the framework of these few verses that we are reminded of great doctrinal truth. Truth that we know because it is directly from God. Truth that sustains because it is divinely inspired. Truth that reassures us because it is eternal. So, when we come face to face with the unknown, loved ones, turn not inward to your own devices that are completely incompetent and, instead, turn to what we know, found in the only source of divine, eternal truth that we possess—the very words of Almighty God.
Brent Thompson
Comments