Making the best of difficult times
Published 9:42 pm Saturday, April 4, 2020
By Rev. Raymond Amos Sr.
This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again.” Jeremiah 29:4
“Seventy years of captivity! How can it be? Has God forsaken us?” If we think social distancing, or even shelter in place, for another 30 days is too much; we can be thankful that it is not 70 years. We can also be thankful that we have a place to stay (many do not).
The… exiled people of God were told to go on living and make the best of their situation; and above all, to keep the faith. Life doesn’t come without disappointments. Sometimes we feel like the people in Jeremiah. “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and still we are not saved.” Our 15 days of “stay at home” have come and gone, and still we are quarantined. What do we do? We make the best of it and above all, WE KEEP the FAITH.
The Bible says that we should always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have. We can go at life kicking and screaming, or we can settle down and make the best of it. We can live in such fear that we run from the sound of a leaf blowing; or we can walk hand in hand with God through the storm.
Sure, life has disappointments. Could there have been any greater one than the day that Jesus died? For all believers there is a promise of glory beyond every disappointment. Could there have been any greater assurance that we are not alone, that God still rules the world, and that life is worth the living, than the day Jesus walked out of that garden tomb?
“My faith still holds on to the Christ of Calvary. Oh blessed Rock of Ages cleft for me. I gladly place my trust in things I cannot see. My faith still holds on to the Christ of Calvary.”
Grace and Peace, Rev Ray
(The Rev. Raymond Amos is pastor of First United Methodist Church, Elizabethton)