In Hard Times God Plots For Our Victory Series

In Hard Times, God plots for your Victory : Biblical response to COVID 19

Introduction: Hard times are real for everyone regardless of who we are or where we are. Difficult situations are not new to any generation. And hard times can come as a result of our own sin, natural catastrophe, economic disorder or an environmental syndrome. But there is no sure connection between our suffering and God’s displeasure with us.

Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” The Bible never promises that believers will escape affliction in this life. Acts 14:22 says that, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

But the hard times that we may be experiencing today, is quite unprecedented. But in one way or another it has happened somewhere with someone irrespective of society, in every human generation. You see the book of Eccl.1: 9 says, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Every difficult time that you will ever encounter in life has been common to man in some capacity if not in its similarity. Some people witnessing the situation around us today are asking…: are these the last days? Is the Rapture going to happen soon? Is Jesus coming back anytime now?

Well let me tell you this: if these are the last days in its precision or even if we have to wait much longer for Jesus to return, we the children of God are still going to be safe in the hands of God - either way! There is nothing that can put us in a serious disposition.

But God speaks to us through His timeless Word about not allowing any hard time to break us down, or to cause us to quit, or give up and lose hope. Instead, God wants us to learn the principles out of that situation that will make us harder than our hard time.

I want to address those principles in this article. In our “Hard times, God plots for our victory".

These are unparalleled times that we live. People are not supposed to leave their country to go to another country; you find businesses shutting down, people are not supposed to gather in more numbers… these can be very

scary and worrisome.

But in the final analysis of our life, all these present events that we are going through can be eventually beneficial.

So this is not the time to loose hope because of the negative circumstances we see around. Don’t abandon your goals because of the disappointments or fear that this pandemic has caused.

May be today it’s the requirement of money, or the lack of emotional and physical support that’s bothering you. But we will never have a good reason to quit upon GOD who is still on the throne and is aware of what is happening.

Whatever we may be lacking today, it’s not new under the sun. It is as old as humanity, as Ecclesiastes says. We must bear this in mind that there is no such thing as a pain-free life; and the earlier we understand that pain is inevitable in this sinful world, the happier we will be. It is impossible to live a painless life in a world that is affected by sin.

We go through all kinds of pain. Dennis Prager talks about four kinds of pain: emotional pain, family pain, financial pain and physical pain. Pain is inevitable in anybody’s life.

Years back, the generation that faced the great depression in 1930s, the generation that faced both the World Wars, the generation that faced the Spanish Flu in 1918 did not expect to see a painless life; but eventually they were a happy generation than compared to the modern generation of today. A pain-free life is an illusion; it could be an Ethiopian dream, but still it is a deceptive delusion.

You see when you expect a painless life, you will be in pain. You must understand that evil is real and operational and so pain is a reality. But listen to what Paul says in 2 Cor.2:14: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” Because of this verse we can declare to ourselves that we are winners over every adversity and over every current suffering!

You see difficult situation can either make us morally weak or it can develop a stronger faith to be thankful, to be joyful, to be humble and know that God is still on the throne working in His wisdom even when he allows pain and suffering and challenges in our lifetime.