What is faith?  It says in the bible, in Hebrews 11, “faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see.”  At the moment there is so much trauma, people are dying by the thousands, and lives are upside down.  Businesses are crumbling, people are losing their jobs, and there are the pressures of home-schooling, home-working, and isolation for many.  Circumstances are undoubtedly challenging.  How does our faith help us at times like these?

The word of God, the bible, is a storehouse of promises and truths that never change despite the circumstances.  Hebrews 13 says, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.”  That means that his love, his Spirit, his power and his compassion, never change, and are unceasingly available.  God is with us.  The vaccine is a miracle of science, especially the ability for man to figure out a way of dealing with this complex living organism, which is continuously mutating and altering.  Yet, although this is the hoped for ending of the pandemic, it is not the vaccine that is our strong foundation, it is the rock of our faith in our Lord and Saviour.  He will see us through absolutely anything, He promises.

It is an amazing principle that we can bring our Christian faith into action when we have feelings of absolute despair, and our circumstances are horrendous, and we get into a state where, literally, our brains are programming themselves for impending disaster.  Its ok in the middle of this, to cry out to God, as did so many people recorded in the psalms.  However, when we get beyond that, and focus on the promises of God, the negative programming of our brains unravels, and optimism starts firing up.  Take Jeremiah 29 v 11.  God says, “I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster.”  You are a child of prosperity, not destined for disaster.  On the other hand, there is a dark force at work. Satan is a killer, a thief, and a destroyer, and he has disaster planned for you. You need to know, that if you resist him, in the name of Jesus, he and his plans, will flee.  Read John 10:10 and James 4:7.

This pandemic is testing our faith, it is shaking our foundations.  In buildings when the foundations cannot stand the pressure, they get underpinned.  This is an expensive process of strengthening them in place.  So too can we underpin our faith, by spending time focussing on the truths of Gods word and applying it to our own lives and circumstances.  Verses such as “God will never forsake you,” from Hebrews 13, and “all your needs can be supplied,” Philippians 4:19 can give you comfort and hope. As you take these truths on board, believe them, and soak them into the underpinnings of your spirit.  Let them go into the very structure of your foundations, the marrow of your being.  From this solid position you can look out into the unknown and have hope for the future and courage for the present.