Our nation continues to be rocked and shaken by COVID, racial unrest, protests, riots, and vicious political infighting. I have never seen America in such a state of anarchy.
The tumultuous events happening around us have driven me repeatedly to the Word of God and prayer. This morning I enjoyed an extended time with the Lord. At the end of it a picture came into my mind. It was not a vision, just a memory that kept jumping into my mind. The memory was of watching a news reporter broadcasting from an ocean shoreline during a hurricane. He was trying to bring a live report while the fierce hurricane winds blew into him. He literally had to lean forward into the wind to avoid being blown down. Dangerous debris violently flew by while the ocean waves roared in the background.
As I thought on this memory it was as if the Spirit said, “This is a picture of how my servants will have to lean into the winds of adversity in order to declare my word in days to come.” I am persuaded there is soon coming a season in America where men and women of God will have to preach in spite of and in the face of fierce winds of opposition and even worse national unrest. It will require steel-like resolve. Isaiah’s description of Jesus’s fortitude comes to mind:
Isaiah 50:7 NLT
“Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore, I have set my face like a stone,
determined to do his will.
And I know that I will not be put to shame.”
Very dark and sinister forces are afoot, forces that, I believe, want to destroy our nation. But none of them are greater than the Lord our God and the gospel of His son, Jesus Christ! The church that leans into the wind and says, “I will not be moved” and continues to proclaim His word are going to see God’s hand move on a major scale!
Let’s put on Jesus; His courage, His love, His trust in God. Tough times don’t last. Tough people do. Especially those that walk in the strength of the Lord!