WEDNESDAY'S WORD - SETTLE - Sadell Bradley 3/25/2020

   

"Adult life is dealing with an enormous amount of questions that don't have answers. So I let the mystery settle into my music. I don't deny anything, I don't advocate anything, I just live with it." - Bruce Springsteen 

 

Right now we have, "an enormous amount of questions that don't have answers." I wonder if we're able to let the mystery settle. What a powerful and transformative idea. Christian leaders have various theories of speculation on whether the COVID 19 virus is a judgment for an increasingly dark, idolatrous and sinful world, or a reset that brings us back to our families, an opportunity for the Gospel to go to the ends of the earth via technology or all of the above. We struggle when we don't have answers, control, or solutions. It's crazy how this same word SETTLE which can mean to resolve and reach a conclusion or end; can also mean to become calmer or quieter, to silence, and come to rest without conclusion. Can you settle in the mystery?

This situation has literally brought us to our knees in prayer. There is a level of medical and spiritual warfare that we've not experienced in our lifetime. We need the grace and mercy of God to intervene. 1 Peter 5 says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. He gives admonitions that are very appropriate for our time:

 

6Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

 

We're in the midst of what Paul terms a light and temporary affliction.

"16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and temporary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs our troubles. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  (2 Corinthians 4:17-18) Do all that you can to still yourself and settle down in the mystery.