Knowing God in times of crisis

11 August 2020

God gives us peace and hope, even in the middle of a pandemic. Photo by Kian Worthing.

Words Captain Kylie Hodges

Our world is in crisis. COVID-19 is running rampant. Many businesses have shut down, people have been told to stay at home and even places of worship have closed their doors.

Parents don’t know whether it is safe to be sending their children to school. Those who have lost their jobs don’t know when, or if, their industry will open again. Many people are living in fear and are reacting out of that fear. They are terrified about what will happen to them and to their loved ones.

As the crisis continues, people have questions. How long is it going to last? What about spikes and new waves of infections? Am I doing the right thing for my family? How I am going to make ends meet? Why?

Throughout the fear and uncertainty, the question of ‘why?’ appears to go by unanswered.

I have thought a lot about our world during this time and asked some of these questions myself. It has reminded me of a time a couple of years ago when I again asked God: “Why?” My family had gone through some difficulties. We’d faced serious illness, suffered disappointment and experienced heartbreak.

As you deal with the crisis in front of you, let me share the answer that God gave me. It came in the form of one of my favourite verses of the Bible, Psalm 46 verse 10: “Be still, and know that I am God.” It’s not a long verse, but it is a profound one.

It has always been a bit of struggle, to ‘be still’ in the hustle and bustle of life, but as COVID-19 forces us to slow down somewhat, I find the second part of this verse much more challenging.

God commands us to know that he is God! I think that, when our world is in crisis, we struggle with ‘knowing God’. Perhaps that’s because we associate knowing with understanding. We want to understand why God is allowing the world to suffer. We want to understand why we have to live with limited resources. We want to understand why all of these people are suffering. We want to understand God and his ways rather than just sit with him and know him.

You see, when God said, “Know that I am God”, he wasn’t saying that we would understand the storms that we would have to face. Truly knowing God isn’t really about understanding – it’s about having faith and confidence that God is there with us. It’s about knowing that God’s heart is aching alongside ours and that he is offering his peace and comfort in this crisis. It’s about knowing that God is carrying us through. It’s about knowing that God’s plan is ultimately better than any plan we have for ourselves.

We may never understand why our world is facing this pandemic, but God doesn’t ask us to understand. He only asks that we be still and ‘know’ him – trusting him in the crisis and leaning on him. That is all he asks us to do.

Kylie Hodges is a Salvation Army officer (pastor) in South Australia.