Our Known God in Unknown Times

Some time ago—in a different season—Brother Howell and I worked on this article; even more appropriate today.

Pick up a newspaper. Tune into a radio station. Surf the Net. Dreary stories are plentiful. The economy plummets. The pandemic provokes panic. Political chaos prevails. Extortionists plunder. Catastrophes produce pressure. It is easy to be caught in despair, depression, and desperation. We live in unsettling times. However, there are a couple things to remember. God’s Word remains the same. It is forever settled. God never slumbers or sleeps (Psalms 121:4). We can put our confidence in Him and His Word.

N. McMichael tells this: “A poor woman, as the Eastern story has it, came to the Sultan one day, and asked compensation for the loss of some property. ‘How did you lose it?’ said the monarch. ‘I fell asleep,’ was the reply, ‘and a robber entered my dwelling.’ ‘Why did you fall asleep?’ ‘I fell asleep because I believed that you were awake.’ The Sultan was so much delighted with the answer that he ordered her loss to be made up. But what is true, only by a legal fiction, of human governments, that they never sleep, is true in the most absolute sense with reference to the Divine government. We can sleep in safety, because our God is ever awake. We are safe, because He never slumbers.”

I know it cliché: I don’t profess to know the future, but I do know Who holds it. When looking at the future it is easy to think of one word to describe it: “unknown.” I love this famous poem:

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’
And he replied,
‘Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!’
So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.
So, heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?
(Minnie Louise Harkins)

Wherever you are, at home or overseas, put your hand into the hand of our all-knowing God and walk into the unknown. He is in control. Someone said, “Those that see God’s hand in everything, best leave everything in God’s hand.”
I recall listening to a senior minister earnestly praying, “I put my tiny, little hand into your big, big hand.” Great idea!

Remember:

God is alive.
God is awake.
God is aware.
God is alert.
God is active.

Excerpt from the Word:
“Behold, He who keeps Israel, will neither slumber [briefly] nor sleep [soundly]” (Psalm 121:4, AMP).
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34; NKJV).

~James Poitras, Director of Short-Term Missions
March 31, 2020