In the Hands of God

I’ve learned a very important lesson since March 2020 in the world of the pandemic. I wonder if you have learned the same lesson? I’ve always looked around the world where people live in abject poverty and hand-to-mouth existence and felt compassion for them. I think back historically on the Great Depression in America as people lived in hand-to-mouth existence and think: NOT ME. I never ever even one single time imagined that could happen to me. I have a 67-year track record of eating every day. I’ve always thought I have plenty of reserve, and even if things get tough around the world, I will always have enough food. But lately I’ve been thinking: what if the American economy fell apart? What will happen? Unemployment will exceed that of the Great Depression. It’s very possible that it will result in food shortages. And, when people get desperate, there will be a definite increase in crime – maybe even at my door. I might even end up standing in a food line all day like they do in some countries.

My point: we are way more fragile than we’ve ever imagined. We are just a smidgen from some really tough times. We might think we’re safe and that we’ll always have plenty to eat; however, the reality is we’re never very far removed from living in hand-to-mouth existence. And, the lesson I learned is that I must always stay close to God and stay in the hands of God where there is an abundance of eternal life. I need to stay dependent on the Lord to provide. Read Deuteronomy 8:1-3 and Matthew 6:19-34. Then listen to In the Hands of God by Newsboys.

“All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you may live and increase, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, in order to humble you, putting you to the test, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you go hungry, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you understand that man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.