Glorifying God in the dark times

In July of 2002, I had one of my first tastes of loss and grief.  The pastor that I mentioned in the last blog, Rick Ferguson, passed away in a car accident.  He was 46.  His oldest son, Brett, preached at Rick’s memorial service.  Brett’s outline focused on ways to glorify God in happiness, in pain, and in death.  I want to share the points from that middle category, because we are facing crazy days right now.  These are days of chaos, uncertainty, and stress; Brett’s words are just as timely today as they were back in 2002.  Incidentally, there’s no way I can cover all of this in one singular blog.  This is going to be part 1.

So, with that said, let’s dive in.  How do we glorify God when life is tumultuous and chaotic?  Brett’s first point was: “By believing that God is sovereign.”  The sovereignty of God is found all throughout the Bible.  To give just one example, Psalm 103:19 has been a verse of immense comfort to me.  It reads, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all” (New American Standard Bible).  In other words, God is in control.  Nothing takes Him by surprise, or makes Him nervously wring His hands.

Last time, I quoted from the foreword of the book “You can Trust God to write your Life Story” by Robert and Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth.  They have a good word on this.  In chapter 1 of the book, the authors write, “Far from being a crushing burden to be borne or diminishing our value, the Providence of God is a great and precious gift.  To be helpless victims of chance, tossed about on the storms of life – that would be forever disconcerting and tragic.  Thank God it is not the case.”

Secondly, we glorify God in dark days by “trusting in God’s sovereignty.”  As Brett said that day, it is one thing to intellectually understand that God is in control.  But it’s another thing to say, “I know you have a plan, God.  I trust in that plan, and I trust in You.”  He quoted Psalm 91:1-2 at this point; which says, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.”  In the margin of his Bible, Rick had written these words: “What good is a God you cannot trust?”

 

In conclusion, let me state this plainly even though you already know it: I don’t write these blogs from an ivory tower somewhere completely unaffected by the pain of this chapter in history.  Like everyone else, my world has been disrupted and turned upside-down by this coronavirus pandemic.  Further, as an “essential worker” I have been in the trenches every day.  I have felt the intense weight of these times on my shoulders, believe me.  I’m the one that needed to be reminded of this content.  From there, I decided to pass it on to you.

Kevin