Good Afternoon. This Sunday is different from other Sundays. Instead of rushing to get ready for our church service, we leisurely got ready and watched it online. The kids also had an online service to watch. During this unprecedented time, I have been hanging on to my faith. It has brought me peace and comfort.
I still have anxiety and worries. I get through the days fine. At night, I am exhausted. Some nights my dreams are so vivid. I dream about my mom who died a few months ago on Christmas Day. I dream that our family gets Coronavirus. I dream of deaths and loss. I wake up in the morning wide-eyed and wonder if all of this is really happening.
I consider myself lucky that I just have bad dreams.
People are losing their jobs. People don’t have enough money to pay their bills. People do not have food to eat.
People have to go to work putting their lives at risk, hoping that they won’t get this virus. They hope they won’t give the virus to their family members.
Some people have small businesses, that they are trying to keep afloat and still manage childcare and homeschooling.
Not everyone has a backyard to play in. Some people are cooped up in a small space with small children and elderly adults.
I don’t know how all these people feel. Afraid? Panicked? Worried? Exhausted?
I am not in their situation. I can tell you how I felt when my husband lost his job six years ago. He was unemployed for 7 months. I had an emergency surgery. Then, my dad died. I felt so stressed out, that I felt physically ill. When I looked at my life, I could not see it changing. I imagined all the worse case scenarios. And, they were bad. My worries made me feel a looming sense of dread.
I had this little spark of hope, and I clung to it. What if God could change everything for us? What if God would turn our lives around? I read the bible. I had a choice. I could go with what I saw, or I could trust that God was going to do amazing things in my life and pull us up from that slimy pit.
I made the choice each day to trust in God. The world laughed at me, but I ignored them. I focused on God. I knew that he would be faithful and bring us through our storm. And, he did. ALL THE WAY. God brought us through all of it and gave us blessings that we didn’t even know that we needed.
All things are possible, if you believe!
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
–Mark 9:23 (NKJV)
If you are going through all the emotions right now, trust in God. Even if it is glimmer of hope, do it. That hope will grow, if you continue to seek the Lord. The Holy Spirit will fill your heart with abounding joy and peace.
God will give you strength to go through the storm.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
–Romans 15:13 (NKJV)
Embrace This Beautiful Life 