Keeping Faith In Trying Times (March 2009)

Despite the bleak headlines, I was amazed to discover that Comic Relief smashed its fund raising record by over £15 million. I found it extremely encouraging that in this current financial climate, people are coming together, regardless of their financial situations, to support a charity committed to changing the lives of many around the world.

This news made me realise that as children of faith we must not focus on the limitations set by the credit crunch but rather focus on God, as our circumstance must not alter our expectations of Him.

In Mark 12:41-44 Jesus gives us an example of belief that isn’t determined by circumstance. In this story a widow who is poverty stricken presents two copper mites (the equivalent of half a cent) as her offering and Jesus points out to his disciples that she has contributed the most to the treasury because she has put in everything she has. Here was a penniless widow, without a future source of income and no-one to care for her, and in the depth of her desperation her faith cried out to God. Some would have mocked her, and mocked God through her. “The God of your lack,” they might have taunted. But in her circumstance she said to God that her faith remained in Him.

2nd Kings 4:1-7 tells the story of a widow whose two sons would be enslaved if she was unable to pay off her late husband’s debt. Her story is reflective of the challenges being faced by many of us today, who like her find ourselves in difficult situations due to no fault of our own. Many have served faithfully in their sectors of employment and yet have been let go, or their employers were forced to close shop, and even for others who have managed to retain their jobs the cost of everyday life has become a major challenge.

When the widow presented her situation to Elisha he asked her to tell him what she had in her house. She replied that she had a little oil, and he instructed her to go round to her neighbours to ask for all the empty jars they could provide. He asked her to pour her oil into the jars and the little she had kept flowing until there wasn’t an empty jar left.

What this miracle showed was that opportunities existed even in the midst of her suffering and in the same way many of us will find endless opportunities in this credit crunch if we remain tuned into the voice of God.

Isaac was tuned into the voice of God in Genesis 26 and despite a famine in the land verse 12 records that he ‘planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.’ Prior to this prosperity God had instructed him not to go down to Egypt – as the Israelites often did in times of famine – but to dwell in a land He would tell him about, so Isaac was able to thrive in adverse conditions.

Similar opportunities exist for those affected by the credit crunch and many of us will find ourselves challenged more than ever to step out in faith in these troubled times. I would like to encourage you, if you fall into that category, to put your complete trust in God at this time, knowing that He is able to supply all your needs. The widow of the prophet multiplied what little she had and at the end of her story she was able to pay off her debts and also to provide for her family’s needs.

I know the challenges we face as a result of this credit crunch might seem overwhelming but I urge you to keep your focus on the one constant in these ever changing times, the One who WAS before the credit crunch, who IS in the midst of it, and who WILL continue to be after it. We must remember that we serve a God who does not delight in the suffering of His children.