The challenges we’re facing as a culture and church can easily cause anxiety, both about the present and the future. However, disruptions almost always create new opportunities.
God said to Joshua as he led the children of Israel toward the flooded Jordan river, “Stay close to the Ark of the covenant because you have never been this way before.” (Joshua 3:4) and last year we prayed into that theme all year long.
We can say the same thing about the moment we are living through right now. We too have never been this way before. Just as they had never walked through a flooded river while God held back the waters, we have never experienced mass isolations and self-quarantine. But we can be sure that the same God who held back the waters for His people then is still the protector and provider of His people today. Once they passed through to the other side, they were never the same. They went from “wilderness wanderers” to landowners. They ceased to be “manna gathers” to become “fruit harvesters.” Who knows, we could be in the middle of the same kind of transformation.
This I do know, the same admonishment God gave to Joshua is still good for us; “Stay close to God and His word, go where you see Him go and do what His word says and you will come out the other side of this better off than when you started the journey.”
We began this year praying, “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:6 - NKJV). I believe there is a connection between these two themes. I believe God is taking us where we have never been before. I believe God is hearing our prayer to revive His church in this hour. I believe God is doing and is about to do infinitely more than we could ask or imagine!
Together, let’s believe God to do infinitely more in this moment! And let us be ready for whatever comes next!
Pastor Barry Risto
Lead Pastor