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the answer is yes, shouldn’t it reflect in our response amidst this crisis?
One of the reasons why believers stumble and panic amidst any crisis is that most of them are puffed up by their claims of knowing God and His prom- ises, but fail to realize that they hardly have any deeper understanding about Him . They are satisfied with the verbal knowledge, which is merely the tip of the iceberg, and don’t care to dive into the Spiritual ocean via Scriptural medi- tation and prayers, to grasp the gigantic and sumptuous nature of God .
The same is evident in our response when hit by a crisis . On Sundays, we joyfully declare, “My God shall supply all my needs...” but on the next day when we are kicked out from our job, we become anxious . We boldly de- clare, “My God is on my side, of whom shall I be afraid...” but when our ad- versaries threaten us, we are easily frightened . We confidently declare, “...by His stripes we are healed” but when anyone in our family gets sick, we easily become desperate . We have our justifications for such a ‘human’ reaction but it has done us no good, leaving us spiritually handicapped . Our response in the middle of a crisis is no better than the response of the ten spies .
Today, there is unreliability and precariousness everywhere around us . Amidst such incertitude, the Word of God is our only hope and refuge . But for the word of God to fructify in our lives and for it to re- flect in our response to the crisis, we must first have a clear conviction and
understanding of who is our God and Whom do we serve .
Coming back to our original ques- tion, that is to comprehend what it means to have GOD as our refuge, the prerequisite must be to have a deeper understanding about our God . And how can we have this deep- er understanding? The answer awaits in our inner prayer room . Such an understanding cannot be contained and expressed in human words but needs to be personally experienced and grasped in God’s presence .
Even Paul was left marveled by such an experience and later ex- claimed, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom . 11:33) . And the LORD said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer . 29:13) .
C . H . Spurgeon has rightly said, “He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet .” Our spiritual life should not be a mere intellectual exercise and our understanding of God should not be confined to certain memorized verses . God is faithful and He will see us through this crisis but let us make most of this unprecedented time in knowing Him more closely and deeply . n
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