We aren’t even a full five months into 2020 and already it has been an extraordinary year. Whatever foot holding we had in 2019—whether it was our health, finances, calendars, predictability, peace, or calm—is gone. From coronavirus around the globe to racial injustice in the US to the power grab by China in Hong Kong, nothing feels secure. Have you ever before gasped this much and this often when reading the news? 

Where do you go for hope? Where do you turn when the world feels upside down? What comforts you when life goes off the rails? 

Here are four truths from scripture that I keep turning to in the precarious days of 2020. 

It’s no mistake that I live here and now.

Having lived on three continents, Acts 17:24-28 are bedrock verses for me. They remind me that the God who made the world and everything in it is the One who gave us life and breath and everything else. He is the One who determined where and when we would live. The fact that I am in Parker, Colorado at this moment is by God’s design. He purposed this that I might seek him and find him, though he is not far from any of us. God willed my life here and now for his glory and my good. This is not a mistake.  

The cross bears witness to God’s good character. 

• When I remember the cross of Jesus Christ, I remember that Jesus is immeasurably loving and trustworthy. Though I was an enemy of God and dead in my sin, because of his great love and mercy, Jesus bore the penalty for my sins and made me alive through his death and resurrection (Ephesians 2:1-10). There is no greater love than that. 

• The cross reminds me that God wants what’s best for me. With Paul I can ask, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). The cross proves that God has my best in mind as I endure any trial, loss, or insecurity.

• The cross reveals that there is nothing God will ask of me that will be harder than what he has already done for me. Whether I am sick, impoverished, heartbroken, betrayed, or downtrodden in any way, I must simply look to the life of Jesus and his cross to know that my Redeemer has endured far more than I for the sake of us follow him. Our High Priest is indeed sympathetic (Hebrews 4:15). Whatever we endure in these days, we know he has endured worse and he asks us to persevere by his power and for his glory. Through him we can. 

I am safely in Jesus’s hands.

I have followed Jesus for about 30 years now, but I remain amazed that he would save me. The Bible says I was his enemy and yet he gave himself over to a violent and horrific death for me. Not only that, but he rose and conquered death and sin forever. What a mighty Savior we have and there is no safer place to be than in his hands. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-30). We can rest because we belong to God Almighty. 

I have all that I need for this moment.

I know that I live here and now by God’s design. I know from the cross that his character is good: he is loving and trustworthy and able. I know that nothing can snatch me away from his hands. And finally, I know that he has given me all that I need. Jesus commands us not to worry, saying that our Father in heaven knows what we need before we even ask him (Matthew 6:25-33). Paul—who had every reason to be anxious!—says God “will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). And Peter reminds the church that God’s “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). We lack nothing! We have all that we need for the moment that God has ordained for us to live in. 

Brothers and sisters, let us not waver in our faith and wonder if our God has forgotten us. Let us not grow weary in belief. Let us remember instead what’s true. Our God is for us, nothing and no one can stand against us. The very God who made the universe and you and me, the very God who conquered death and rose again, the very God who gives us all we need—he is coming again. All things are by him and for him and through him (Colossians 1:16). 

Yes, these days are unsure, but we have a Creator and Savior who is steadfast, immovable, and unchanging. He is our ever-present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). Let us call on him and rest in him.