Panic Monday

 This morning I am actively waging war to dethrone worry. Financial uncertainties have hit many of us no doubt and our home is neither exempt nor excluded. I hate waking up like this - with the startling realization that nothing is certain for any of us.

I hate it when worry creeps up my spine and rudely slithers in uninvited and unannounced. I hate when I watch the numbers in our bank account steadily decrease and the frailty of my faith now glares at me; when all the words I preached in my very eloquent messages, abruptly return examining my every thought and I am faced with these two-sided options: Sink or swim, confess or retreat, believe or doubt.

I found the above image on Unsplash. Obviously, it's not a picture of me. But it might as well be. I confess that even as I write, I am fighting the temptation to believe my own accusations against our Lord: "Oh my! You have let me waste my time and my life?!" "What foolish choices I have made". Only to be reminded of Luke 9:62 “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

These words change nothing in my actual present circumstance making my current challenge, and yours, the ability to make our eternal reward far more meaningful and pertinent than we have ever made it. Like many of you, we are facing the reality of loss and continually losing income and having to trust the Lord in our finances. But neither you nor I have the luxury of trading the peace of Christ for worry and giving it authority and rule over our hearts! Colossians 3:15 reminds us to 15"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful." 

That verse offers zero gimmicks, weird sounding prophetic promises, or earthly and temporal blessings. Only the command for the peace of Christ to rule in my heart and yours as parts of a body.

Have you ever considered that the peace of Christ is a calling? Or considered the gravity that it is a corporate calling. One that can only be experienced together with all the Saints. 

This body of which we speak has one head and it is Christ! And He has not been left without a plan and He knows no panic. Our head knows no worry.  The peace of Christ involves the welfare of our souls, bodies, and spirits. Our calling is to be ruled by peace with thankfulness corporately even in this pandemic. This mayhem we now experience is but the hulling out and cleansing agent of the Great Physician. We have been diagnosed: "how little we trust Him." But the prognosis is favorable: "I will finish what I have started".

In this healing, He is exposing all our allegiances to doubt and fear. He is addressing selfishness and pride. He is all-wise and all sovereign in His timing and the execution of all the affairs that afflict mankind. Please do not shrink back now from faith, but remain under His care.  We, (you and I) will come out healed! Remember when you asked to love Him more? Don't stop now because it doesn't look the way you thought it would. 

Ladies, this is the season that will reveal to us if we are daughters of Sarah or daughters of Hagar (Galatians 4:21-31). So as daughters of Sarah, recipients of His great grace, let's all take a deep breath- turning all our panic, manic Mondays into days of unprecedented glory and praise.  

With is the Lord saying to you? How are you coping during this season? Shoot me an email: [email protected]

"Pray without ceasing,  continue believing, lean on one another, and let's turn up our love. "