What has 2020 brought to light?

Can you believe 2020 is now behind us? Now I KNOW some of us would LOVE to leave all this Covid business behind as well, but alas we might still have to deal with it this year. Anyway, we’ll leave that subject alone for now. At the beginning of the year, I remember hearing in a few Christian circles how this year God would be exposing lies and truth would come to light. I remember how this rang true in my spirit. Especially because I had had a dream in which one of the major themes was exposing things that had been causing misfortune.   Therefore, as I heard others getting the same sense, I did anticipate God exposing lies or bringing forth truth.

A few days ago, I was pondering about the year ending and remembering what had been said about this year and it almost seemed to me that the opposite happened. We have been bombarded with so many headlines about all that is happening that sometimes it is hard to discern what is true. And I asked God how come? And it amazed me that God answered me, almost right away. It wasn’t an audible voice, but more like enlightenment.

Sometimes we assume or expect God to do certain things in a specific way and when He does it differently we can sometimes miss it. Didn’t that happen with the Jewish people? The Messiah came in a way no one expected, as a baby who grew up humbly and who came to save but not necessarily of foreign kingdoms but of sin and to take upon Himself the wrath of God so that those who believe in Him would be counted righteous. If we had been living in that time, would we have missed it? I probably would have, yet how merciful of God to continue to extend his grace as he seeks us out and brings us to Himself.

If I had not asked, I would have probably missed what He exposed this year, in my own heart and that was where we put our trust in. When we began receiving all the news of doom, where did your thoughts go? What did you cling to? As we have had to face all kinds of restrictions and challenges, did we turn to God first? Did we walk in trust of who God is, or on what we could do ourselves to protect those we love? I am not saying to ignore or disregard safety measures but just turning our awareness to what is on our hearts, whether we trusted something other than God. I know there were times when I fooled myself into thinking I had some control instead of releasing it all to God.

Something else that I believe God has exposed this year, is whether we do believe in His Sovereignty. It’s easy to say that God has everything in control, but do we really believe it? Do we believe that He has our lives in His Hand? Are we really believing that He is sovereign over EVERYTHING? Even whether we live or die and when? Have we believed that the lives of others are in our hands? Is that biblically true? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying to be negligent and careless about the wellbeing of others. On the contrary, God’s word tells us to put the interests of others before our own. I am just wary of how it seems they are distorting this principle to foment fear.

I am reminded of the scripture that says that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (1 Timothy 1:7). It sometimes feels like much of the response is out of fear. Fear of getting sick, fear of dying, fear of passing the virus to loved us…fear. Has fear stopped you from being there for your loved ones? Has fear stopped us for caring for our sick? Is isolating the sick what is really best for them? See I think this is where we reveal if we truly believe God is sovereign and if we trust Him enough to go forward in His power and love and do what He is calling us to do?  Please note, the emphasis on His call.  We are not to act on our own, that is foolish especially when it comes to the wellbeing of others.  The point is to obey Him. We are to obey God even when it may seem like foolishness or carelessness to others.

The other day I read the following quote from a preacher Charles Spurgeon who was no stranger to illness and death. “Who is the man that does not fear to die? I will tell you. The man that is a believer. Fear to die! Thank God, I do not. The cholera may come again next summer—I pray God it may not; but if it does, it matters not to me: I will toil and visit the sick by night and by day, until I drop; and if it takes me, sudden death is sudden glory.” What convicted me was, that right now we are extremely discouraged of caring for our sick. The risk of death is always present when it comes to contagious diseases, so how come we are responding contrary to what our predecessors did?

As God brought these things to mind, I realized how God is exposing what our hearts truly trust and believe. A recurring theme in lessons God has taught me over the years is that what we trust and believe is greatly correlated to what we know. Whether it is of God Himself or of something else like death and Heaven. For those who are believers and still fear death, I think it is because we don’t know enough about Heaven and maybe even worse, we don’t know much about our Savior that we don’t long to be with Him as much as we do with our loved ones. As a result, we cling to what we know, we cling to this life. When you have grown in knowing Christ more and enjoying His presence, the longing for Him increases. So even if you fear the unknown you can quickly turn to the truth that He knows and trust Him.

You may completely disagree with me on what I am sharing, and I am sure I may not have it all 100% right but it would be wise for us to consider what has truly sprung from our hearts throughout this year. What are we clinging to? What do we really fear? And as we become aware of what is in our hearts I pray we would repent of the things we need to repent; surrender of what we need to surrender and/or seek to know Christ more so that we may trust and take Him at His Word more than we do anyone else. We may not know what this coming year will bring. Yet what a hope we have that we can choose to cling to the One who knows, sees, and will sustain and even receive us with open arms when we draw our last breath.

“I said to the man at the gate of the year, ‘give me a light that I may walk safely into the unknown.’ He said to me, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. It shall be to you better than the light and safer than the known.'”

King George VI