By Pastor Teddy Joseph
With the recent increases of gas and food prices, food shortages, restrictions on certain freedoms, increasing rates of suicides and domestic violence, one may wonder if there will be an eventual end to all of this.
What we are seeing in society right now is unprecedented. Self-preservation seems to be the new method and way of living.
It seems like a relentless storm is beating down on us with a barrage of problems with no signs of letting up. However, there is a solution to all this.
The bible states that God has promises for those who wait and trust in Him to deliver them from their problems. This was the case with Moses and the Israelites when they were before the Red Sea and surrounded by mountains and with the angered Egyptians behind. They were overcome with fear and despair. They panicked and started to make plans to return to Egypt to save their lives.
But Moses distilled their fears by redirecting their thoughts at what God was going to do. At the commencement of Moses raising his hands, God opened up the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass through. God delivered them in the midst of trouble while their leader was at peace, for he trusted in God and His power.
When Goliath and the Philistines were in battle against King Saul and his soldiers, fear swept throughout the whole camp. Goliath was a massive warrior who dominated the battlefield. He struck fear in the soldiers of Israel and they had no idea how to overcome this present obstacle.
Yet the peace of God was upon David who had no fear of the Philistines or even Goliath for that matter. He knew that the provocations by Goliath were directed at God and so he trusted that God would be the one to fight the battle. In the end, the crisis ended with the total defeat of Goliath and the Philistines. With every biblical character in the bible, they all had certain type peace while going through their crisis.
We need to come to a realization that God does not simply eliminate the obstacles before us that have been plaguing us on a daily basis.
On the contrary, He has promised us that He will provide an escape for us. Even more so, the greatest thing about God being in our crisis is that He Himself will take us through it and deliver us. We just need to completely depend upon Him and trust His leading in our lives.
The bible promises us that we can have a peace that surpasses all understanding. That peace can only be obtained In Christ Jesus. Christ came to earth and died on behalf of fallen man and resurrected for their salvation to be secure. He can empathize with what we are going through because He has gone through it as well. The peace that He is willing to offer us is not just the absence of problems, but rather the presence of Himself within it.
The more we allow Christ in our lives, the easier it will be to get through our trials, and the more peace we will have as we trust that God will take us through our crises.
Teddy Joseph is the pastor at the Stettler and Sedgewick Seventh-day Adventist Church.