Southland Christian Church

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In Case of Emergency – Stay Calm - Monday


Today’s Verse

1 Peter 1:7

These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. (NLT)


When I was 29, my husband and I found out we were pregnant. We were elated and, as is natural, we began to plan for the future based on our circumstances. A few weeks into that pregnancy, however, my husband found out his company was downsizing and no longer had a position open for him. It’s funny how you remember vivid details from moments you receive life-changing news. I can remember exactly where we were eating dinner, which table we were at, what the tablecloth looked like, who we were with… all of it. I can also remember that we allowed worry to set in and our emotions took hold of us in those early moments. We reacted frantically instead of responding calmly.

In today’s scripture, Peter talks about how trials test our faith. It is in our hardest moments that the true object of our worship is revealed. Do we rely on Jesus in those moments? Do we remain calm and trust that He is in control? Or do we let our emotions take over? 

Strong faith in Jesus allows us to respond calmly instead of reacting frantically. There is such wisdom in that kind of response—and it most definitely takes an intentional development of our faith during the days that are good to prepare us to withstand the days that are not.

So how do we build a faith like that? We build our faith through spiritual disciplines: prayer, reading Scripture, worship, and living in community with other believers. When our faith is strong, we cling tightly to the peace Jesus brings in the midst of chaos and remember that God is working on our hearts when we face trials. He’s refining our character and teaching us to trust His timing. We can be calm because we know our hope is not in the things of this world, but in the promise of eternal life with God.

Once my husband and I got a hold of ourselves, we spent time praying for God to show us what was next and to protect us in the meantime while he searched for another job. While it took faith, God was faithful (as we knew He would be) and what came next was better than we could have expected, resulting in an elevated position, increased pay, and better health insurance coverage than before. And when we faced that very same situation again with our second child (true story!), we already knew He would carry us through because we’d seen Him do it before.


REFLECTION

Focus on spiritual disciplines today. Do you have healthy ones in place? If you’re not sure where to start, check out this episode from our Locker Room podcast talking about healthy rhythms or this one from our Tell Me More podcast, focused on the discipline of studying your Bible.