Faith

A New Normal

by Thom Mollohan
04/02/20
For Sale
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

I have heard the expression (and have used it a few times myself) that we need to be attempting to achieve a “new normal”.  Truly, this is a goal that you and I should seek for ourselves as we look to stabilize our attitudes even if we cannot stabilize our situations.  Things are changing day-by-day and the human inclination is to respond with worry and anxiety.  For some, when they feel thus, they respond with denial.  Others respond with panic.  Maybe you have experienced one or the other or a strange amalgamation of the two, flipping back and forth as new bits of information (and sometimes misinformation) make their way to you. 

A new normal, if we’re not careful, can be a mass of chaos and uncertainty.  That is not the kind of new normal that you and I should reach for!  Today, we need to be centered in those things we can deal with and ultimately the One Who is in charge of all things anyway, recalling to mind and heart His love and power, as well as the assurance that He can handle all of this craziness!

God’s Word reassures us in Romans 8:31-32 with these words, “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He Who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?”  Give us what all things?  Peace, hope, joy, love, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23).  You can have these things because you know that the trials of this life are passing things and that what matters is the hope you have in eternal life. 

Don’t fret.  Don’t worry.  Don’t be afraid.  Be at peace.  Trust that God will give you wisdom and strength to do and be and say what is needed when it is needed.  Even our trials here are momentary and are “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18 ESV). 

Pause and reflect on the love of God which is working on your behalf, as His child, right now.  Think of the comfort of that.  Think how precious it is.  Pray to the One Who offers it to you freely right now in Jesus Christ.  Allow Him to forgive your sin, make you new, and set you free from fear and powerlessness.  Let yourself be caught up in a “new normal” of trusting Him each day to love and guide you in all things. 

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39 ESV). 

Copyright © Thom Mollohan