Daily Devotional – May 11, 2020

Yesterday, well, it was Mother's Day, we can say that for it, and it was the Lord's Day. We had a good service, online service, at least I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed speaking to the church family yesterday and all who were able to watch it.

I trust you moms had a wonderful day. You surely deserve it. I saw how one adult child was trying to make up for all of his, well, shall we say his erring ways as a kid, so he told his mom, he said, I'm sorry mom for all the dumb stuff I did when I was a kid, but if it's any consolation to you, you only know about half of it.

I wonder if there's anyone other than I who can relate to that. Well, anyway, I hope you moms had a great day yesterday. Well, how about today? How you doing? Are you smiling? Are you smiling? You know how that old song goes, when you're smiling, when you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you.

Of course, the world doesn't know if you're smiling if you're wearing one of those masks, right? Well, if nothing else, at least you know now why I promised that I would not sing the songs during the Sunday morning worship service.

All right.

The Light of God’s Truth in a Crisis

Well, last week I shared a few thoughts from Psalm 112, and you remember, if you were able to tune in, that that psalm was written during some kind of a crisis in the life of the psalmist. We don't know exactly what it was, but he did say it was a time of darkness, it was a period of darkness.

You can read about that in verse four. And even though that darkness, whatever it was, is not at all identical to the darkness that we're dealing with in this panacdemic, nevertheless, we can see in this psalm some of the blessings that God promises to his people, even in a crisis like the one we're going through.

And I wanted to highlight three of those blessings that are seen here in this psalm. And the first one we looked at last week, it's the blessing of illumination. Verse four says, Light, light dawns in the darkness for the upright.

Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. So in the midst of all the darkness that's going on right now, there is a promise of light for God's people. Now, I suggested that there are three particular rays of light that can help you sort of make sense of what's going on and to look to the future with hope and with confidence.

And let me just remind you of those, rehearse those with you. One of them is, one of those rays of light is that evil people exist at all levels of society. So however this whole panacdemic plays out, if when all is said and done, we find out that there's been a whole bunch of evil and corruption that's been going on either behind it or manipulating it or whatever, then it won't surprise us, it won't rattle God's people because we know this is a ray of light that we have.

Evil people exist at all levels of society. The second truth, a ray of light, that we have in the dark, things planned for people, for the United States, for the world, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and then all of a sudden, oh, this virus outbreak occurs.

No, no, no, no. God rules over it all. He's not surprised by any of it. And then the third truth, a ray of light, that we can hold on to in this time is that ultimately God's truth and God win. God's truth prevails and God wins.

God's truth prevails and God wins. So one of the blessings is illumination. The second one we want to look at today is the blessing of stability. And coupled with that is legacy. Psalm 112 verse 6 says, For the righteous will never be moved, he will be remembered forever.

The righteous will never be moved, he will be remembered forever. Now how is it that in the midst of this panacdemic, you can be unmoved? Well, by the way, this does not mean that you're not moved or affected emotionally.

You need to be moved by the misery and the heartache that this thing is causing. I mean, can you imagine the heartache of people not being able to visit their loved ones in the nursing homes? Can you imagine the elderly that are in these facilities that are, you know, like the lonely moms yesterday in these facilities who couldn't have their children visit?

Or people who take a loved one to the hospital in an emergency situation, whether it's COVID or not, and they have to drop the person off at the door and not know whether they'll see them again or when they'll see them again.

I can't imagine that. And of course, some people get this disease and they suffer greatly from it. No, when it says that the righteous are not moved, it doesn't mean you're not moved emotionally by this thing, and it also doesn't mean we're not moved by it physically.

Being a Christian doesn't exempt you from getting this sickness. It doesn't exempt you from it having an impact on your job and on our finances just because we're Christians. It doesn't exempt us from being under the restrictions that everyone else is under during this time.

No, this doesn't mean we're not moved by it physically. What it does mean is that you're not moved off of your life's foundation. You're not moved off of your life's foundation, what you know and hold to be true.

That's why the psalmist can continue here in verse 7 and following. He says, He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid. You do see in that verse, don't you, the fundamental key to stability in these days, right?

He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. I can tell you personally that every time I start feeling afraid because of what I read or hear about this panacdemic, I've taken my eyes off of what I know to be true about my God and His promises to His people.

I get diverted away from that. I forget that. The bad news of the panacdemic, I've allowed it to eclipse the good news of the gospel, the good news of what I know to be true. So with your heart firmly fixed on the Lord and His truth, you aren't filled with panic and fear.

You're firm, you're steady, you're stable. And on the other side of all this, whatever that other side is, whenever it comes and whatever it looks like, you'll be leaving behind a legacy. Verse 6 says, He will be remembered forever.

Verse 9 says, His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. So how are you doing? I mean, really? There's a ton of fear-inducing bad news coming at us from everywhere. Let me encourage you, regardless of how true any or all of that is, keep going back to the rays of light, the truth that you already have.

Shine the light of God's truth on the bad news. It won't make the bad news go away. It won't all of a sudden make the bad news good. But it will steady your soul, and it will keep you firmly grounded in the good news of the gospel of Christ.

Let me encourage you to do that. Let's think like that. Let's think Christianly in these days of the pandemic. All right, well, this is Monday, beginning of a new week, and I trust it'll be a good week for you as you walk with the Lord and as you shine the light of His truth on the world around you.

Let's pray and ask God to give us a good day and a great week serving Him. Our Father and our God, we are so grateful today for Your goodness, Your kindness, for Your truth. Thank You for Your sovereignty.

May we trust in it and be firmly fixed thereon, we pray. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and for His sake, amen. All right, have a good day, and God bless you.