“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”- Psalms 27:13
I woke up today with this scripture on my mind and was
encouraged. It is easy for us, as a sanctified people, to become distressed at
the rampant sin that surrounds us. And there is good to this, of course. I pray
God keeps us intolerant to and disgusted by sin. I pray He fosters that
righteous anger, and more so that righteous sorrow, so that we can share this
gospel with those ensnared by sin and know how to pray for them more earnestly.
But, at the same time, we are not to be disheartened. We must have the faith that God is still
working good amidst all the sin and all its destruction.
The Lord’s hand is not shortened in the changing of cultures.
His ear has not become heavy with the onset of technology. The mountains, the
rivers, the plains, the forests; they all declare His glory. They all stand
holy, despite it all. From the vast seas
that hold a mirror to the sky, to the human soul and that may hold a mirror to
Christ. It is only humanity’s sin that blemishes God’s divine creation: the
rebellion of people who are ultimately ashes and dust. Because, at the end of
the day, if we were all to disappear right now, even the tallest skyscrapers
we’ve built to ourselves of our own pride and greed, would be reclaimed by
nature. And still, God sent His son to
live and die to cleanse and sanctify his people. Why would He have made so
great a sacrifice if he couldn’t ensure there’d be a remnant who’d accept it?
Although it’s easy to feel alone in this walk, through prayer and ministering
we find, like Elijah, that there are people everywhere who are serving Christ,
even where we cannot see. And yet, even if there wasn’t, God’s will is still sovereign. He moved upon the wicked nation of Babylon to
execute his judgement against the people of Israel. And when their time had
come to return to their land, he used a pagan king, Cyrus of Persia, to bring
them home and rebuild the temple.
All throughout history, you can see His hand moving. And all
around us, He is still working. We have nothing if we can’t trust in his
goodness and power. There is nothing new under the sun, and thus nothing He
hasn’t handled before. It only takes a little faith on our part to believe, to
see it.
