First, let’s address the elephant in the room. We are living during an unprecedented Global Pandemic that leaves no life untouched – anywhere in the world! Any weaknesses in our character is being put to the test, and oh boy are people freaking out – ask any cashier or barista (if they are still working)
Like being in a movie, the drama is being played out right before our eyes. We are living in a media windstorm as world leaders and journalist scramble to define the chaos. Scientists are tracking the genetic footprint trying to wrestle this “unseen enemy” slithering through the people groups of the world.
Many of us are told to stay home and not spread our germs to one another which means we need to discover a new rhythm to living and discover some level of peace during the Present Storm. I felt like all of America was 16 again – gas was cheap and we’re all grounded! So, like most, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands.
I have been focusing a lot of my attention in two areas of study:
1. Learning the Macarena Dance
2. Trying to understand The Immutable Nature of God
The first is a work in progress but the second is really calming my inner storms. Understanding the Nature of God is centering to me. It’s like walking out on an ice-covered lake. My faith isn’t resting in my ability to take such a risk but in the knowledge of how thick the ice really is. The question in my mind is can I put my trust in the integrity of something solid?
Let me explain:
God is Bigger than ALL of this world chaos and finding His presence is like floating in an Ocean of Love. When you sit quietly in your questions with Holy Spirit, His peace comes to you even when not much makes sense to you.
Paul the Apostle-Mentor of the early church wrote:
Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. (Philippians 4:5 TPT)
In other words, circumstances DON’T have to make sense for us to TRUST God while trying to get His perspective on all this mess.
David wrote in the Psalms, “I have calmed and quieted myself” (131:2). Or, “I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.”
What’s Happening? Is God up to something?
Myles Monroe (one of my brilliant mentors whom I met in person only once) observed…
“A careful study of history reveals a providential order in the generational progression of mankind. We see evidence of historical convergence and transitional tides at significant points in time. A historical convergence is a strategic period of history when major transitional changes occur, bringing with them drastic and sometimes momentous transformations in social, economic, political, and spiritual conditions
The results of such strategic changes have brought unsettling societal fear, panic, distress, and confusion.”
Now in life there are three types of changes:
- Those that happen to us.
- Those that happen around us.
- Those we make happen.
Also three types of people in the world
- Those that watch things happen.
- Those that make things happen.
- And those who ask, what happened?
This is where the Immutability of God‘s nature becomes so relavent and why it’s so important to understand in a time of Global unrest. We are living in a time of “A historical convergence – a strategic period of history when major transitional changes” are occurring and God is not shaken by any of this chaos. He Himself declares in Malachi3:6, “I the Lord do not change.”
It doesn’t mean that he’s stubborn and uncreative. Immutability reflects His activity as The Creator and as Creator, everything begins within Himself. He creates thus initiates, the principle of change.
Change is a component of time. Time is what produces change. So, everything that is within time will experience change. From God’s perspective, Time is an interruption in eternity and a measure of Forever.
God created time according to Genesis 1:14, to “Mark seasons and days and years.”
King Solomon said in his book of wisdom “There is a time for everything, and the season for every purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
There is a principle within that verse: Everything created below the heavenly, invisible, eternal realm exist in time, and EVERYTHING in time has a purpose for which there is a season for fulfillment.
In essence, God’s purposes and activities in time are designed for seasons, which in turn will require change. Even during what looks like chaos is relative to His purposes for that season which we may or may not understand – but He does!
That’s why we believe Jesus was able to sleep during the storm…
Jesus – always the trendsetter – set the standard for how we face life-threatening storms effectively—in a place of rest.
Mark 4:36-41 The Passion Translation (TPT)
36 After they had sent the crowd away, they shoved off from shore with him, as he had been teaching from the boat, and there were other boats that sailed with them.
37 Suddenly, as they were crossing the lake, a ferocious tempest arose, with violent winds and waves that were crashing into the boat until it was all but swamped. 38 But Jesus was calmly sleeping in the stern, resting on a cushion.
39 So they shook him awake, saying, “Teacher, don’t you even care that we are all about to die!” Fully awake, he rebuked the storm and shouted to the sea, “Hush! Calm down!” All at once the wind stopped howling and the water became perfectly calm.
40 Then he turned to his disciples and said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Haven’t you learned to trust yet?”
41 But they were overwhelmed with fear and awe and said to one another, “Who is this man who has such authority that even the wind and waves obey him?”
Peace is more than the ABSENCE of something like war, noise or conflict or pandemic. Our peace is because of the PRESENCE of Someone – it’s the actual atmosphere of heaven.
Bill Johnson observed about this story, “You have authority over the storms you can sleep in.” I believe we need to cultivate a quiet heart as we ride out this storm – God is up to something!
When we begin to live out of fear, we must return to wherever we left our peace. Losing our peace usually involves making a mental agreement with a lie until our emotions become captive to that lie. The fiery darts of the enemy get past our shields of faith and penetrate our souls. The agreements made in those moments work against God’s purposes for our lives.
One of the church fathers, Frank Laubach asked a very important question:
“Our mind is a flowing something. It oscillates. Concentration is merely the continuous return to the same problem from a million angles…. So my problem is this: Can I bring the Lord back in my mind-flow every few seconds so that God shall always be in my mind?
I choose to make the rest of my life an experiment in answering that question.“
As of writing this blog, we are in the middle of the government’s “sheltering in place” mandate and it looks like this may be a while. But I am taking Laubach’s suggesting – and the example of Jesus – to bring the Lord, the Creator, into my mind-flow so that He’s always on my mind.
It’s my experiment for the rest of this pandemic!
