By Brandi Yakubov
Last year, I wrote a reflection on the Easter service sermon by Northview Church Senior Pastor Steve Poe. With Easter season here again, I decided to take a look at what I had written. Something struck me like a lightning bolt: I had said, “Even when we fall and there seems to be no hope, we are not forsaken; we are always alive in Christ.”
I suppose the keyword here is hope. That abstract noun that quickly bounces off your lips yet lingers in the air like a bacterium waiting to host. What is hope? What does it mean to have hope? It could easily be that hollow feeling inside all of us after we wait for the results of a test, deal with the anxiety of meeting someone new or experience an ending we never expected. It may be clichéd into wish fulfilment, but when we turn to God, hope becomes trust. It’s about trusting in the plan He has for each and every one of us.
I know for myself, not being able to attend church, or sit at the local coffee shop, or exercise at the gym or shop without concerns has begun to take its effect. The uncertainty of not knowing when we can go back to living our usual daily routines has me trembling from within. But God assures me to “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10, NIV)
When in the dimmest of times, with the uncertainty of our future so evident before us, we must not lose sight of God’s promises. We have all been through and seen the end of many difficult hardships and have grown stronger each time. So what good does worrying do? “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27, NIV)
I’ve repeated this verse aloud from the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV). I believe there is no better time than now to dive deeply into what Jesus promised. In Matthew 6:26a-6:28b (NIV) we read, “Look at the birds of the air…see how the flowers in the field grow.” With spring season upon us, we see the birds singing without fear and the flowers blooming with ease.
This is our eternal promise that God will always provide for us the way he provides for our Earth—“A treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” (Luke 12:33, NIV)
With our hearts and minds set on Christ, even when we may feel hopeless or uncertain, we are never forsaken.
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