Hello, everyone. I’m Ty’Ann Brown, encouraging you to keep the faith.
Happy April Fool’s! Yeah, it’s that time of year where so many people are usually, you know, pranking one another and playing tricks on one another, then turn around and saying, “I fooled you.” But considering our worldwide pandemic, it probably isn’t the best time to play a prank.
I mean, probably many of us are asking God, “Are You playing a trick on us?” I mean, we’re tired, we’re sick, we’re frustrated, and frankly, this is not funny. But I want to encourage many of you today that now is the time to have faith. I mean, foolish faith, the type of faith that in the midst of turmoil, your faith is grounded and strong and unshakeable, to the point that in the face of others, it seems foolish.
In Luke 8:24-25, the Bible tells us how Jesus was on a boat with the disciples when a monstrous storm came, threatening their lives. The disciples were so afraid. They went and got Jesus, who was sleeping on the boat, and He woke up and He rebuked the winds and the waves and then, just like that, it was a miracle. Everything was calm. But He looked at the disciples and He asked them, “Where is your faith?”
See, having faith is one of the most important things that you can have as a believer. Jesus wasn’t expecting them to fix the boats or to be better sailors at that time. He wanted them to have one thing: faith. And so, when you’re facing the storm of life, which we’re all facing together right now, God is not expecting you to have all the answers. He wants you to have that one thing: faith in Him.
Faith is an extraordinary gift from God, but it does require us to make very hard decisions. And I know that’s not easy for many of you today. Some of you may be working from home, worried about the economy–you may even have a loved one that has been affected by the coronavirus.
And none of us knows what tomorrow will bring, but this is where faith comes in. It causes you to make that hard decision, to trust God day by day, knowing that He is fully in control. Faith is considered to be the opposite of fear. It does not mean that we deny the very scary things that are happening around us, but it does mean that the two cannot coexist.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said it well: “Faith is the very thing against which fear cannot stand.” So make sure you keep the faith during this storm. God bless you.
