Ashley Thaba Are you praying hard enough?
FOR the past 13 years, my husband and I have led a weekly Bible study. Over the years of studying the Bible together, we have become a closeknit group who shares prayer requests, celebrations, funerals, etc.
In the past week, one of our member’s close colleague at work lost her son to a car accident, another member lost her cousin and uncle to COVID-19 on the same day, my husband lost his best friend to COVID-19 (in less than 24 hours from the time he felt sick till death), one of our friends lost his mother ... Sadly, I could actually go on.
The list is long and depressing. Unfortunately, I am confident that you could fill in the blanks with the news of gloom and despair you have heard in the last week.
As economies crash in the wake of the effects of COVID-19, crime rises and death tolls increase, people feel a sense of hopelessness they have never felt. There is no doubt that there is an unprecedented spirit of sickness, death, and depression like nothing I have ever seen in my life.
Yesterday, a Bible study member reached out to me. “Why? Ashley, Why? Are we not praying enough? Is this a judgment on our nation for the sin that we are unrepentantly harbouring? Do our leaders need to turn from their self-serving ways and lead our nation in prayer and repentance? Are we in the last days? Why? What can we do? She has wrestled with the question, “Is there any reason to pray anymore when sometimes it doesn’t seem to make a difference anyway?” Can you relate? Have you experienced these same questions as you have gone through your valley of the shadow of death?
The age-old question of why do bad things happen to good people is too complex to do it justice by attempting to answer it in this short column. I do, however, want to share with you one Biblical truth that can not be denied. It is worth meditating on in these trying times. Trials refine us like fire refines gold.
Throughout the pages of scripture and the testimonies of our history books, we see that those who go through hard times are stronger, more focused, and humbled.
Trials have a way of taking a strong self-reliant person and bringing them to their knees with the unavoidable reality that they have no control over their life.
The Bible teaches us that our life on planet earth is, but a breath — here today and gone tomorrow. COVID-19 has become a devastating illustration of this Biblical truth. Thankfully, the Bible doesn’t end it there.
God promises a place of no more pain, no more suffering and no more evil. He challenges us to use this limited season in the world to prepare ourselves and others for eternity — to store up treasures in a place where thieves can’t break in and COVID-19 can’t touch you. To train our eyes to focus heavenly when we are tempted to focus on the sadness that threatens to envelop and pull our focus onto ourselves.
For me, when I look back on times of trials, I can testify that I found strength that can only be attributed to the power of God working within me. I found comfort that can only be explained by a peace that surpasses understanding. I saw miracles that would have only happened if things had been so bad that only supernatural intervention could have redeemed the situation.
They have produced an inexplicable desire to rise up and persevere — to hold on to the hope that there will be something better awaiting me in eternity. They have produced a dependency on God to literally live, breathe and walk in His strength on those days where I am too weak to get up.
They have moulded my character to base my self-worth not in things or people who may or may not be there tomorrow, but to base my selfworth in knowing no matter what happens my Heavenly Father will never leave me nor forsake me. He is an ever-present stronghold in times of trouble.
Ultimately, as tough as it is, if we are honest, we know that some of our greatest life lessons were learned through our hardest times. May I gently and humbly encourage you to ask yourself what God might be teaching you right now?
The Biblical man, Job, has a famous saying where after every awful thing imaginable happens to him, he states in Job 42:5: “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.”
I want to leave you with this challenge if you are struggling with the same questions my friend has. Please go and read Romans 8 — over and over and over.
The whole chapter speaks to this issue, but I pray you will gain comfort out of the promise in verse 28. In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him. I don’t want to diminish your pain right now. I am crying with you.
But, I do pray that somehow you will find the strength to look up and open your heart to receive the peace that only Christ can bring to that place which is breaking and hurting deep within your soul. He hasn’t left you. In fact, the Jesus I read about in scripture is probably crying with you.