God Is Watching Over in Our Perplexities
I am sure that most of you reading this will have lived through the year 2020. This was a year like no other in my memory, for many reasons, the main one being the great number of perplexities that we all have known.
As I write this, we have now entered 2021, almost completing the first month of January, and unlike our hopes and dreams desired, the perplexities still assail us on every side. We are perplexed as to how a tiny virus could basically halt the whole world’s movements in commerce, government, health, and even basic religious practices. We are perplexed as to conflicting advice, often from the same source, about how to behave during this time. Are masks good or are they bad? Does the virus stick on objects, or only travel through air contact? Are vaccines indeed a PROVEN way of advancing against this enemy? Are there hidden agendas, which really are trying to break the governments of the world through economic shutdown, so that devious “others” can move in with their evil plans?
We also are perplexed about how to maintain relationships with those we love and with those we hope to reach with the gospel. Should we go to church or stay home? Should we visit our aging relatives or leave them alone without important human contact? Should we continue to visit the needy, offering help, or should we turn our eyes away and hope somehow others will be there for them?
We are perplexed as to how to conduct our lives in a way pleasing to our Father God in a world that has seemingly gone crazy with fear. All of these perplexities and many more can bind us up in a spirit of fear, which effectually neutralizes our effectiveness in daily living in the power of the Spirit.
These are the times in which we should flee to the Rock of the Word of God and really listen to the promises our God has given us. Psalm 33 is full of these reassuring and empowering promises:
- v.4 The Word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does
- v.5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love.
- v.10 The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
- v.11 But the plans of the Lord stand FIRM FOREVER; the purposes of His heart through all generations.
With these and many other eternal promises of God’s faithfulness, unfailing love and power, we can experience His watchfulness over us in times of the greatest perplexities. He is over and above anything that brings us fear or dismay. His watchfulness is eternal. Praise His holy name!
Mary Fawcett