Encouragement to Our Church Family

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope’” — Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

What does it mean to walk by faith when everything appears to be going up in flames?

As I write this, our precious friends and church family on West Maui are facing unbelievable devastation from an uncontrolled fire that started last week.

Homes, businesses, ships, and historic sites were lost due to fierce winds from Hurricane Dora that pushed the fire beyond control. The loss of loved ones who couldn’t make it out in time is even more devastating. It is heartbreaking, and we won’t even truly know the extent of the damage and loss for probably weeks or months.

Dear God, what will remain of this place? I wonder.

In Jeremiah 12:5, God tells the prophet, “If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses?” (NLT).

I am so often stopped in my tracks and forced to reflect on how the great saints of old were able to rise above their circumstances to see the grand vision God was giving them. So often, they would write of hope in the thick of imminent destruction, while in exile, or in a prison suffering.

This is the definition of walking by faith. To see beyond our current circumstances and hold tight to the assurance of God. His promises to us are not like the morning mist that dissolves and passes away. His Word endures forever.

“This is what the Lord says: If you can break my covenant with the day and the night so that one does not follow the other, only then will my covenant with my servant David be broken” (Jeremiah 33:20-21 NLT).

Don’t we all expect that tomorrow morning is coming? Of course, we do. It is coming. It always does.

This is the confidence with which we should anticipate God’s promises. Although what our eyes may see is a pathetic, easy-to-dismiss, lifeless stump of a tree, God Himself promised that from that stump he would make “a righteous Branch” sprout up (Jeremiah 33:15 ESV).

It reminds me of articles I read about the wildfires in the southwest. Did you know that in much of the Rockies, a wildfire is a beneficial force and that some trees—lodgepole pines, for example—even have seeds that need flames to germinate?

The fires come, the rains follow, and the seeds are left in what would, to the normal eye, look like a wasteland void of hope.

But that land has been rinsed clean. The sun has started shining again. And up from the ashes in the months and years to come, there will be baby piñons growing—new life springing up. And, to the trained eye, they look like pure hope.

Train your eyes to look past where you are now…to a future of good things. Close your worldly eyes and see through the eyes of faith. See the hope, future, and new life the Lord is building for you.

Please pray with me for our Maui family.

“Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5 NLT).

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