A Pastor Speaks to His Congregation

Week after week and month after month, we meet together to worship and study God’s Word. We talk about how we will respond when there is a crisis—well, we have one of gigantic proportions. So let’s act as mature believers should with faith in God and calm demeanor. No panic, no, irrational talk or mob mentality, no hoarding, just deliberate action.

We have seen how quickly our world can fall apart “Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird…” (Hosea 9:11). The prophet Haggai described our condition: “You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (Haggai 1:6).

Our only hope is in God now and forever. This crisis is severe and we all pray it passes. We pray for those whose families have suffered loss and those who are sick. We pray for the end of this virus, but until that comes, may we walk worthy of the Lord every day!

The prophet Elisha was approached by a faithful widow who had supported his ministry but now was in dire straits. Creditors were coming to take her two sons as payment. Elisha asked her what she had, and she replied, “Your servant has nothing there at all except a little oil.” She was a woman who was in the middle of a crisis, and she was overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. She wanted Elisha to make it all go away. The prophet gave her an assignment, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” Think about what Elisha asked of her. It would have sounded irrational to anyone without faith in God. The woman did as she was told, and the result was a miracle, “They brought the jars to her, and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left” (2 Kings 4:1-7)

In a crisis, it is hard to see God because the problem looms so immense. There was something about the disaster that caused the woman to minimize her gifts. God’s gifts are not measured by big and little, great or small. Her comment, “I have nothing except a little oil” is so descriptive of our mentality. God’s solution not only supplied the need but also taught the woman not to despise what she had. As we go through this crisis of the pandemic of the Corona Virus facing our nation and the world, let us have faith to believe that nothing is impossible for God. The one essential question for all of us is, “Will I trust God with each crisis or not?” We don’t know how long this will last or how it will all turn out, but we do know that God will not abandon us.