I was reflecting on this dark time we’ve been thrust into and the thought of how desperately we all want this horrific plague to come to an end! Oh, how I’ve cried to God to wipe the nasty virus and all of its evil off of the face of the earth!
We pray and we wait for good news! Yet, we turn on the TV for an update and the news is worse! There are moments of good squeezed in between the suffering. There are miracles happening but we don’t really get to see most of them. I have an acquaintance that we’ve prayed for who was unconscious and on a ventilator, dying alone in a hospital full of strangers. His family was told to make plans because this was his end. We cried with the family yet we prayed for a miracle. A couple of days later, he woke up, he was coherent, and he began to breathe on his own. He is now recovering and will be going home, healed! Praise God!
During my own dark time several years ago, I was told the cancer I faced was very aggressive. There were no options other than chemo. I had hoped that additional opinions would tell me something different and that I’d be given good news but with each appointment, the news didn’t change. I had to make a choice at that time to fight – but not with my own might. I knew I needed God’s help. I prayed and I waited and I prayed and I waited. As I did what I had to do physically, I also did what I had to do spiritually!
It’s amazing how when we’re faced with a life-threatening issue, we can turn to God more easily. I loved God and had a personal relationship with Him, but it was that moment of desperation which caused my hunger and thirst for HIM to heighten and my spiritual eyes to turn to Him in full reliance. He filled me up with the substance of His word which is Faith, and eventually my prayer was answered and I was able to see the evidence of things I had hoped for! That’s why I call that period of time my “waiting room”.
Now, in this time, we wait together. We wait for good news but we don’t see it yet. People are still dying and our earth is crying out for this nightmare to end.
“For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” (Romans 8:24 – NKJV)
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 – KJV)
One thing God taught me through my time of waiting was that He does not live in time as we know it …. He lives in eternity, which is above and beyond time. This waiting seems like forever to us on this side – but we can’t let that play with our minds. We need to stand firmly in faith, not doubting that our Lord has heard our prayers…. and let patience do its perfect work.
“But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (James 1:4)
In this dark time on the earth, we can choose to look to the light of God and reflect on His promises.
Miracles do happen even in dark times. And in the darkest hour ever in all of history, a miracle came upon the earth. Jesus died and took upon Himself all of our sins in His own body on the tree! He bore our sicknesses and diseases. He gave Himself up for us and paid for all of our sins. He defeated death, hell and the grave when HE ROSE AGAIN! HE IS ALIVE! THIS IS THE BEST MIRACLE EVER! If God did that for us, why would we doubt that He IS ABLE! This is a trustworthy God!
“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57 – NIV)
Image from YOU’VE GOT TO BELIEVE YOU’RE GOING TO BE OK – From Fear To Faith, by Lorraine Brown