“Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.”
– Psalm 33:22
In the Bible, the word hope means to have confident assurance of something. We often put our hope in familiar and visible structures of society, government, and authorities. We put hope in our own plans, skills, and abilities. We put hope in the notion that tomorrow will be pretty much like today. Then comes something like the coronavirus that reminds us that these are not things upon which we can have confident assurance. Strength and skill will eventually fail us. Structures and leaders will eventually fail us. Sometimes tomorrow is not like today.
Only God, who is sovereign over all things, will never fail. He is our refuge and strength. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good. He operates from an eternal perspective we can’t even comprehend and He works all things together for the good of His creation and those who love Him. It is in God alone through faith in Christ that we should place our hope, for He alone is steady through the storms and chaos, the fear and sickness. Let us place our hope firmly in God and nowhere else.
Then may God’s steadfast love – which never changes, never flickers, and never fluctuates – rest upon us. His love is not transactional or contingent, it is not self-serving or manipulative. God’s steadfast love is pure and holy, ever present and freely available to all who call on His name in Christ. In this challenging time, know that God’s love is always upon you, and we pray that you may have an especially clear sense and experience of His steadfast love throughout the days ahead!