“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:16
We live in a world that is consumed with fear and panic. Covid-19 and its repercussions are the top headlines of every new day! The Canadian singer Anne Murray once recorded a song that stated, “We sure could use a little good news today!” If those words ever rang true, they surely do today! But the author of the book of Hebrews has some good news for us! He tells us in Hebrews 2:14,15 – “that through death He might … deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
Jesus Christ came to deliver those who have become enslaved by the fear of death! The world is in slavery to the fear of death – and Covid-19 has only served to magnify the fear already there! The believer, however, is not immune to all the tragic news of the mass media. It is easy to fall into despair and discouragement, especially when we are in isolation from one another. You hear all the statistics of Covid-19, and you become discouraged! If you are a young person, then your chance of contracting a serious form of Corona Virus is slim, but as your age increases – so does your chance of tragic consequences. You may have even discovered what the exact percentage of the chance of fatality of this virus for your age bracket is.
But our lives are not governed by chance or statistics! The late R.C. Sproul has said, “There is no maverick molecule if God is sovereign!” Lord’s Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks and answers the following Question: “What do you understand by the providence of God? The almighty and ever present power of God by which God upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.”
Impersonal statistics and data will prove to be a very unstable foundation of hope in these uncertain days. Focus, rather, on the loving, caring nature of your Father in heaven, who holds your life in His powerful Hands! You can rest in Him!
Thank you Fred. Let us all look to God in these days.