We live in a world under siege. Fear comes down the streets of every city orchestrated by evil minds bent on tearing down God’s creation. Troubling times sometimes bring out the worst in people. Our world is now consumed with the spread of the Coronavirus. If there has ever been an hour for the church to shine a light to the world, it is now. None of us are immune to trouble and adversity, but we can all live in peace in these troubled times because of the presence of God. Our text today was written during a time of national crisis and is a source of great encouragement. Amid the perils of life’s journey, this Psalm describes the attitude we must have in troubling times. It is more than the assurance that God can keep us from trouble, but that He can keep us amid trouble. It is not an advocation of being reckless and assuming that God will protect. We can, and should, live pragmatically and with wisdom, but doing all the pragmatic and wise things will not keep things from coming into our life. God’s promise in Psalms 91 is that, even amid peril and disease, faith shows itself to be a reliable source of peace and preservation. If we can learn to live in faith like described in Psalm 91, we can have peace and calm in troubling times. It is time to let faith speak.

We live in a world under siege. Fear comes down the streets of every city orchestrated by evil minds bent on tearing down God’s creation. Troubling times sometimes bring out the worst in people. Our world is now consumed with the spread of the Coronavirus. If there has ever been an hour for the church to shine a light to the world, it is now. None of us are immune to trouble and adversity, but we can all live in peace in these troubled times because of the presence of God. Our text today was written during a time of national crisis and is a source of great encouragement. Amid the perils of life’s journey, this Psalm describes the attitude we must have in troubling times. It is more than the assurance that God can keep us from trouble, but that He can keep us amid trouble. It is not an advocation of being reckless and assuming that God will protect. We can, and should, live pragmatically and with wisdom, but doing all the pragmatic and wise things will not keep things from coming into our life. God’s promise in Psalms 91 is that, even amid peril and disease, faith shows itself to be a reliable source of peace and preservation. If we can learn to live in faith like described in Psalm 91, we can have peace and calm in troubling times. It is time to let faith speak.

The story goes that on February second if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. Phil has a fifty-fifty chance of being right, but over time, he only has a thirty-nine percent success rate. People invest a lot of hope in the groundhog not seeing his shadow and therefore predicting an early spring. The truth is that spring will come no matter if Phil sees his shadow or not. In the midst of the long winter, it seems that it will never end. So it is with seasons in life. Our text says to everything there is a season. There are seasons to plant, and seasons to reap. The text also says that there is a time for everything. So often in life, timing is important. God is in the business of strategically positing us exactly where He needs us to be and precisely the moment He needs us to be there. Solomon, writing here in Ecclesiastes lists, twenty-eight instances of seasons and timing in God’s economy. While none of us like trials and hard seasons, it is encouraging to know that these seasons will only last for a time until God orchestrates the situation to exactly where it needs to be. It is important to know what season we are in. If we try to plant when it is time to harvest, we are wasting our time. We cannot worry about the season others are in, because we are all in our own journey. For some, it may be time to harvest while we are planting. If we are in a planting season, we have to concentrate on that. We have to evaluate our own season and have a conversation with God on how to deal with our own season. It is not easy to understand God’s timing, and it is even harder to wait for it. But waiting for it is always worth it. We put too much emphasis on the season. We worry too much about what the groundhogs in life predict. Our text tells us that seasons come and seasons go, but there is a time when everything will begin to make sense. Winter will end and spring will come. Stop trusting that groundhog.

The story goes that on February second if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. Phil has a fifty-fifty chance of being right, but over time, he only has a thirty-nine percent success rate. People invest a lot of hope in the groundhog not seeing his shadow and therefore predicting an early spring. The truth is that spring will come no matter if Phil sees his shadow or not. In the midst of the long winter, it seems that it will never end. So it is with seasons in life. Our text says to everything there is a season. There are seasons to plant, and seasons to reap. The text also says that there is a time for everything. So often in life, timing is important. God is in the business of strategically positing us exactly where He needs us to be and precisely the moment He needs us to be there. Solomon, writing here in Ecclesiastes lists, twenty-eight instances of seasons and timing in God’s economy. While none of us like trials and hard seasons, it is encouraging to know that these seasons will only last for a time until God orchestrates the situation to exactly where it needs to be. It is important to know what season we are in. If we try to plant when it is time to harvest, we are wasting our time. We cannot worry about the season others are in, because we are all in our own journey. For some, it may be time to harvest while we are planting. If we are in a planting season, we have to concentrate on that. We have to evaluate our own season and have a conversation with God on how to deal with our own season. It is not easy to understand God’s timing, and it is even harder to wait for it. But waiting for it is always worth it. We put too much emphasis on the season. We worry too much about what the groundhogs in life predict. Our text tells us that seasons come and seasons go, but there is a time when everything will begin to make sense. Winter will end and spring will come. Stop trusting that groundhog.

The story goes that on February second if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. Phil has a fifty-fifty chance of being right, but over time, he only has a thirty-nine percent success rate. People invest a lot of hope in the groundhog not seeing his shadow and therefore predicting an early spring. The truth is that spring will come no matter if Phil sees his shadow or not. In the midst of the long winter, it seems that it will never end. So it is with seasons in life. Our text says to everything there is a season. There are seasons to plant, and seasons to reap. The text also says that there is a time for everything. So often in life, timing is important. God is in the business of strategically positing us exactly where He needs us to be and precisely the moment He needs us to be there. Solomon, writing here in Ecclesiastes lists, twenty-eight instances of seasons and timing in God’s economy. While none of us like trials and hard seasons, it is encouraging to know that these seasons will only last for a time until God orchestrates the situation to exactly where it needs to be. It is important to know what season we are in. If we try to plant when it is time to harvest, we are wasting our time. We cannot worry about the season others are in, because we are all in our own journey. For some, it may be time to harvest while we are planting. If we are in a planting season, we have to concentrate on that. We have to evaluate our own season and have a conversation with God on how to deal with our own season. It is not easy to understand God’s timing, and it is even harder to wait for it. But waiting for it is always worth it. We put too much emphasis on the season. We worry too much about what the groundhogs in life predict. Our text tells us that seasons come and seasons go, but there is a time when everything will begin to make sense. Winter will end and spring will come. Stop trusting that groundhog.

Nascondino is the Italian word for the children’s game of hide and seek. We can argue that the first game of Nascondino was played in the garden with Adam and Eve. After the fall, Adam tried to hide from God out of shame. Saul tried to hide from God’s will. Jonah ran from God and tried to hide. The Psalmist says even if he made his bed in hell, he would not be hidden from God. Adam and others have tried to hide from God out of shame. It is not possible to hide from God. He is all-seeing and all-knowing. God’s goal is not condemnation but redemption. God wants to take the weight of sin that does so easily beset us away from us. We cannot hide our failings and our downfalls from God. But what about the things that God hides from us? God is omnipotent. God has never faced a situation that puzzled Him. God is never surprised. He specializes in the impossible. While our circumstances look impossible, God is working to make a way. Though we do not see it, the hidden hand of God continually works to orchestrate things to make a way through our impossible situation.

Nascondino is the Italian word for the children’s game of hide and seek. We can argue that the first game of Nascondino was played in the garden with Adam and Eve. After the fall, Adam tried to hide from God out of shame. Saul tried to hide from God’s will. Jonah ran from God and tried to hide. The Psalmist says even if he made his bed in hell, he would not be hidden from God. Adam and others have tried to hide from God out of shame. It is not possible to hide from God. He is all-seeing and all-knowing. God’s goal is not condemnation but redemption. God wants to take the weight of sin that does so easily beset us away from us. We cannot hide our failings and our downfalls from God. But what about the things that God hides from us? God is omnipotent. God has never faced a situation that puzzled Him. God is never surprised. He specializes in the impossible. While our circumstances look impossible, God is working to make a way. Though we do not see it, the hidden hand of God continually works to orchestrate things to make a way through our impossible situation.

Nascondino is the Italian word for the children’s game of hide and seek. We can argue that the first game of Nascondino was played in the garden with Adam and Eve. After the fall, Adam tried to hide from God out of shame. Saul tried to hide from God’s will. Jonah ran from God and tried to hide. The Psalmist says even if he made his bed in hell, he would not be hidden from God. Adam and others have tried to hide from God out of shame. It is not possible to hide from God. He is all-seeing and all-knowing. God’s goal is not condemnation but redemption. God wants to take the weight of sin that does so easily beset us away from us. We cannot hide our failings and our downfalls from God. But what about the things that God hides from us? God is omnipotent. God has never faced a situation that puzzled Him. God is never surprised. He specializes in the impossible. While our circumstances look impossible, God is working to make a way. Though we do not see it, the hidden hand of God continually works to orchestrate things to make a way through our impossible situation.

So often we view Jesus through the framework of the stories and accounts in the bible. We have a more difficult time seeing Jesus in the framework of our lives as we experience it today. We find it hard to view God in our modern times as the one who spoke the world into existence, who opened blind eyes, raised the dead, and died for our sins on a cross. Too many of us have God neatly framed in the bible, but that is not where He wants to exist. He wants to come into our lives, our problems, and our disorder to bring greater life, solutions, and order. We need Him out of the book and into our world. Our text is about two blind men who followed Jesus after he healed Jiarias’ daughter. They refer to HIm as “Son of David” which indicates that they knew about him, but did not know Him well. Jesus asks if they believe that He could heal them. They immediately respond that they did. Jesus responds that according to their faith, they would be healed. Without faith, it is not possible to please God. Faith is the confidence that God will do what He said He could do. Faith is the currency of the exchange between our life and the supernatural. When we have faith, we open the door for God to connect His world to ours. Faith is what connects our flawed world with His perfect world. God gives us the opportunity to alter the outcome of our life. Jesus’ response to the blind men is that the size of their miracle was determined by their level of faith. Our world puts great influence on fate and chance, but our story tells us that faith is the greater influence. Fear has a great influence on our lives. Fear of the unknown, fear of the past, fear of failure paralyze too many people. God did not give us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. God’s promise is life, and life more abundantly. When we believe that promise and have faith in that promise, the grip of fear is loosed. This chapter in our text contains three miracles. In each case, the people had an imperfect view of God, but in each case, the little faith that they had, resulted in a miracle. God is not looking for perfect faith, just a little faith will do. When we have just a little faith, it allows God to be God. If we allow God to be God, how richly will our life be blessed? That is the influence of the Divine.

So often we view Jesus through the framework of the stories and accounts in the bible. We have a more difficult time seeing Jesus in the framework of our lives as we experience it today. We find it hard to view God in our modern times as the one who spoke the world into existence, who opened blind eyes, raised the dead, and died for our sins on a cross. Too many of us have God neatly framed in the bible, but that is not where He wants to exist. He wants to come into our lives, our problems, and our disorder to bring greater life, solutions, and order. We need Him out of the book and into our world. Our text is about two blind men who followed Jesus after he healed Jiarias’ daughter. They refer to HIm as “Son of David” which indicates that they knew about him, but did not know Him well. Jesus asks if they believe that He could heal them. They immediately respond that they did. Jesus responds that according to their faith, they would be healed. Without faith, it is not possible to please God. Faith is the confidence that God will do what He said He could do. Faith is the currency of the exchange between our life and the supernatural. When we have faith, we open the door for God to connect His world to ours. Faith is what connects our flawed world with His perfect world. God gives us the opportunity to alter the outcome of our life. Jesus’ response to the blind men is that the size of their miracle was determined by their level of faith. Our world puts great influence on fate and chance, but our story tells us that faith is the greater influence. Fear has a great influence on our lives. Fear of the unknown, fear of the past, fear of failure paralyze too many people. God did not give us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. God’s promise is life, and life more abundantly. When we believe that promise and have faith in that promise, the grip of fear is loosed. This chapter in our text contains three miracles. In each case, the people had an imperfect view of God, but in each case, the little faith that they had, resulted in a miracle. God is not looking for perfect faith, just a little faith will do. When we have just a little faith, it allows God to be God. If we allow God to be God, how richly will our life be blessed? That is the influence of the Divine.