This morning, as I prayed to begin my time with the Lord, my heart was heavy for friends and family members, suffering in the midst of our fallen world:

-Struggling financially under the weight of the Coronavirus;
-Enduring the loss of a spouse from cancer at an extremely young age;
-Fighting emotional depression, induced by our current pandemic isolation;

And battling to come to grips with a medical diagnosis.

I asked the Lord to encourage me with His Word, as I began. He did so by reminding me of His character, which we can trust.

Psalm 20:7 states, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

In biblical times a person’s name was synonymous with their character, so to boast in God’s name is to trust in who He is.

You might be wondering, “What is a catechism?”

I’ve been reading a book by Kevin DeYoung on the Heidelberg Catechism, entitled The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism.

Simply put, it’s a method to teach individuals basic principles of Christianity through question and answer format. In fact, historically, on Sunday afternoon pastors would visit homes to catechize the members of their church.

“When puritan Richard Baxter became pastor of a nominally Christian congregation, his strategy to win converts was to implement catechism classes. Baxter traveled from farmhouse to farmhouse Sunday afternoons teaching plain folk the doctrine of the faith. After a year, revival broke out in his church. He observed nominal Christians became true converts…parishioners for the first time were becoming fluent in the Christian language.”*

Here is question 26 of the catechism, which I read this morning,

Question:
What do you believe when you say, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth?”

Answer:
That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by His eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father because of Christ His Son. I trust Him so much that I do not doubt He will provide whatever I need for body and soul, and He will turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because He is almighty God; He desires to do this because He is a faithful Father.

As DeYoung points out,

The Bible is not naïve about suffering. Trusting in God’s provision does not mean we expect to float to heaven on flowery beds of ease. This is a “sad world” we live in, one in which God not only allows trouble but at times sends adversity to us. Trust, therefore, does not mean hoping for the absence of pain but believing in the purpose of pain. After all, if my almighty God is really almighty and my heavenly Father is really fatherly, then I should trust that He can and will do what is good for me in this sad world.

It was those truths, regarding the character of God, that were of encouragement to me:

– My God is almighty.
– My heavenly Father is faithful.
– Therefore, I can trust that He can and will do what is good for me in this sad world.

* Live to Tell: Evangelism in a Postmodern Age, Brad J. Kallenberg