DECEMBER 10 A SEASON OF LEARNING By Donald Calder Pastor at Temple Baptist Church, Sarnia, Ontario
Isaiah 43:19 It’s been nearly a year since I first remember hearing the word “Coronavirus.” I hadn’t been paying much attention to what was happening on the other side of the ocean. But, before long, I found myself in the middle of a global pandemic. New regulations were mandated – it felt restrictive and suffocating. There were moments I felt despair. I wasn’t finding it easy to live in this new reality. Just when I wanted to walk away from the pastorate, I read these words in Isaiah 43:19: “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” My eyes were opened to new possibilities, new approaches to ministry, and new opportunities that would allow my church to reach people in different ways for Jesus. There was a freshness to ministry that invigorated me. That day, Isaiah 43:19 reminded me that God is always working behind the scenes. He is working behind the scenes, even when I do not recognize it. He is working behind the scenes, even when I don’t acknowledge it. He is working behind the scenes even when the world is being torn apart.
When your comfortable life is disrupted, remember, God just might be doing a new thing. He might be opening a door of impact and influence – a door you never considered.
In the same way, God was doing a new thing 2000 years ago, when a baby was born in a stable in the middle of chaos. Life would never be the same again. A new door had opened, and God Himself walked through it in the most unexpected and unlikely way.
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