The year 2020 is about to end; it went like a blur. Many even would rather that it didn’t occur; if only restart where possible? For many, 2020 had figuratively or literally stripped them away bare.
During the year 2020, did you feel like you had been stripped of family? Or could it be that you were set apart and shielded from a worldly family that may eventually drag you down? Or probably, for a season you had been relocated from a toxic environment towards a fertile land that would flex your faith? Or perhaps you had been prepared for a much bigger family—a spiritual family? Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse, . . .”1
During the year 2020, did you feel like you had been stripped of a dream? Perhaps you had grandiose plans and suddenly the world seemed to come to a hilt? Did everything turn bleak, a groping in the dark? Or was this a season that you were cleansed from a worldly appetite that your craving for the Truth may be unwavering? Or perhaps you merely had been challenged to shift allegiance from false gods and trust a God that saves. Has it occurred to you that like Joseph you had to go through the gruesome tests to preserve life.2
During the year 2020, did you feel like you had been stripped of your wealth? Perhaps you felt thrust into the harsh wilderness, unmercifully exposed to the elements? Or was it a season that you had to experience that you may taste and see that the LORD is good?3 If it would take a raven to feed you in the morning and in the evening and a brook to provide you drink,4 God would do it. In the wilderness, stripped of any desires of the flesh, the word of the LORD came to [Elijah]5 and John6
Man cannot will himself into righteousness. He needs 1) a transformation of his nature, a new birth and 2) a new sustaining power. God gave his Son and the Holy Spirit to do both. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.7
Notes:
1. Genesis 12:1-3
2. Genesis 45:5
3. Psalm 34:8
4. 1 Kings 17:6-7
5. 1 King 18:8
6. Luke 3:2
7. 1 Peter 1:6-7
