Let Your Light Shine Day 2
In God I trust, I do not fear.
What can man do to me? For you have snatched me from death, kept my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living. Psalm 56: 12 & 14
It is amazing how interconnected the world is. The rapid spread of the coronavirus shows that we are living in a truly global society. However, we are also seeing how each part of our social structure is equally connected. We are not only dealing with a health crisis, we are dealing with the repercussions of what happens when one part of the system breaks down: everything else is equally affected. The forced quarantine that has been put in place to protect our health is actually harming our economy, reducing our general freedom to come-and-go as we please, and crippling our education system.
“In God we trust” is the official motto of the United States. Psalm 56 encourages us to claim it for ourselves individually, “In God I trust.” What happens when I trust in God? The Psalm tells us, “I do not fear.” It would be so easy to blame our leaders for bad decisions that caused this pandemic. It would be even easier to blame our global neighbors for causing the viral outbreak. However, if we actually put our trust in God, we can slow down and release our fears to His care. For people who believe in God, they can step out of the chaos and recognize that above the politicians, above the disease, is a God who loves us.
This Psalm reminds us that in the past, God has snatched us from death and kept our feet from stumbling. I am sure we can all remember a time in our own lives when things were disastrous, but somehow a miracle came through, and we were saved from our worst fears. I can recall living in New York City through the September 11th crisis, and later living through Super-Storm Sandy on the Jersey Shore. Both situations were terribly bleak. But by God’s grace, I did come out okay. I was able to walk “in the light of the living” during and after those events.
In this new crisis we are facing, I take comfort in remembering how God has saved me in the past. Today, I plan to repeat the mantra of this Psalm, “I trust in God,” whenever I feel anxiety or fear start to come over me. I hope you will also join me in this prayer for today:
“Holy Spirit, I thank you for the many life-saving miracles that you have done for me in the past. I thank you for being a God that I can come to and trust for salvation from disaster and death. Fill me with your hope today, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living. Amen.”