The Absolute Anchor In Unpredictable Times

We live in unpredictable times. No one saw COVID-19 coming. In December 2019, scientists thought what started in Wuhan, China was an epidemic limited to that region in China. At best they thought it might just be a Chinese issue. Before we could blink, it became a pandemic, and no country on earth was speared. When Russia started threatening to invade Ukraine, governments around the world thought Putin was just flexing his muscles. No one predicted that he would actually invade, but he did. Now, after two months of devastation and war in Ukraine, the world is wondering, will Putin unleash nuclear war on Europe?  No one can be sure. We live in unpredictable times.

At times like this, when everything around us is unstable, when the cost-of-living crisis is staring us in the face, when we are desperately trying to hold on to our faith, when fear and discouragement is rife, what do we do? We remember God. We remember His faithfulness and His unending covenant.
“This is what the LORD says: If you can break my covenant with the day and the night so that one does not follow the other, only then will my covenant with my servant David be broken. Only then will he no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne. The same is true for my covenant with the Levitical priests who minister before me. (Jer. 33:20-21, NLT)

The difference between the covenants involving men and those involving God is that one is breakable, and the other is not. God’s covenant is unbreakable. God’s word is reliable and dependable. He has the power to determine and accomplish what He sets out to do. No unforeseen circumstance can stop Him, nothing unpredictable can derail Him. He is the one we need to turn to, at times like this.

Can anyone, I mean anyone break God’s covenant with the day and the night? No! If the same is true for God’s covenant with David and the Levitical priests, then the same is true concerning His covenant with us. Speaking prophetically about us, God said through David, the psalmist - “But if his descendants forsake my instructions and fail to obey my regulations, if they do not obey my decrees and fail to keep my commands, then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their disobedience with beating. But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep my promise to him. No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back a single word I said.” (Psalm 89, 30-34, NLT). As God given you a promise in the past? Hold on to it, it will come to pass. God has never failed, and He is not about to begin now. 

No matter how chaotic things seem in your life today, put your trust in God. Look to Him for help and succour. He says, “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? (Jer. 32:27, NIV). Nothing, absolutely nothing is too hard for Him. Let’s look to Him and put our trust and confidence in Him. You may not know what tomorrow holds, but He does. Every new day is made by Him. Nothing is unpredictable for Him. Nothing takes Him by surprise. He is not surprised by the events in our world. He is still in full control and continues to turn the tides of time as He wills. And so you wonder, why does He not put an end to wars and evil in a flash. In His time, He will bring righteousness and justice. “He makes all things beautiful in His time” (Ecc. 3:11).

Therefore, let’s not live in fear of what tomorrow may bring, for tomorrow is yet in His hands. Though tears last for the night, joy is coming in the morning. He promised us this “For I hold you by your right hand— I, the LORD your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.” (Isa. 41:13, NLT). And again, He says “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isa. 46:4, NIV).    

During these unpredictable times, God invites us to call on Him. “This is what the LORD says—the LORD who made the earth, who formed and established it, whose name is the LORD: Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.” (Jer. 33:2-3, NLT)

So here is my prayer for you this week, and the next, and the next, and through your lifetime. “For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name {That includes your family}. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith {Not just sometimes, but at all times}.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. {And that has you know and experience His love, you will be compelled to show it to others, in measures beyond your ability}. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, {Allow His power to work through you as you submit to Him daily} to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (Eph. 3:14-21, NIV). 

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