Confidence in God

Michael Teutsch | 16:44, 19 April 2020

As we go through this period of time in which we're all learning how to trust God in the middle of this coronavirus. I don't know how you reacted to the news that the Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken into intensive care last night. At first, I felt numb and a bit overwhelmed. As I woke up this morning I found myself struggling to find some sort of stability in the situation. If I think about it it's probably something to do with a fear of the loss, at least on a human level, within the country of clear leadership.

I think we have a great deal to thank God for the clear leadership that we have had from the Government, and particularly Mr. Johnson leading us over recent weeks. We are also overwhelmed with thankfulness for the army of NHS workers who are daily, even right now, putting their own lives in harm's way in order to protect us and to serve those who are ill.

How do we understand this situation when we find ourselves overwhelmed in such circumstances?

But how do we understand this situation when we find ourselves overwhelmed in such circumstances? I'm going back to the book of Ecclesiastes which it's really all about a world that at times is chaotic and seems incomprehensible, and I'm drawn particularly to chapter 11 verse 5. It seems to me that the writer of Ecclesiastes begins to try to give us wisdom as a foundation for how to face the world we live in. He says that as you do not know how the body is formed in a mother's womb so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

Now we have amazing technology that enables us to understand something of what is happening in the womb, the sheer wonder of the multiplication of cells and how those cells form into different organs and bones within the body. An amazing reality, and yet if we're honest we still can't properly understand how God in His infinite wisdom forms a child within the womb and brings it to birth.

Now one of the things I think that verse is saying is that even though we think we know a lot we know so little compared to God. We are tempted to try to find our confidence in how we face each day in crises by having the answers ourselves, by having control and thinking that provides a foundation upon which we can base our confidence. But in times like these that confidence is shattered. We have neither the answers nor the control. We are forced to go back and remind ourselves where our true confidence lies - the psalmist in Psalm 91 verse 2 says:

I will say of the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

We don't have all the answers. We certainly don't have the control, but we do know the One who does. It seems to me that this verse invites us place our confidence in his character That is our place of hope. We come to the One who we know is all wise - we do not know all things, He does; we come to the One who is all-powerful, who overrules even in this present situation; and we come to the One who is all merciful.

Michael Teutsch Highfields Church Associate Pastor