Living By Faith: Shaken - Monday Morning Summer Devotion Series - Week 7
Need to start at week 1? Start here
Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
Hebrews 12: 26-27
I remember the recession of the 1980s. Our world shook as the economy tanked. As a co-owner of a business at the time, we worked very hard to get through that recession. By the late 1980s, we were beginning to run in the black again, and our company was growing. Three of us had teamed up to create a company that, with hard work, had made it through one of the toughest times we could remember.
Then, in the late 1980s, one of the owners embezzled a very large sum of our money. Our world shook again. In the end, the company folded. Trials, lawyers, and betrayal followed. Twenty-four employees now had no jobs at a time when unemployment was still very high. Families I had promised to take care of, if they would work hard for us, were on their own. My life was shaken, and it felt like everything was lost.
Without faith, I was broken. I was troubled for many years, until one day God sent a man into my life who shared the Gospel with me. At thirty-eight years old, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I was brought into the family of God. I was joined to an unshakable kingdom, in a world that was (and still is) shaking.
Life can suddenly shake. We can go to bed one night and wake the next morning to a pandemic, economic turmoil, political upheaval. It feels as though everything we have is in crisis. But that which is unshakable remains. The kingdom of God, in Christ, remains eternal. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Lord, I pray for all the family of God at this time. Continue to give us your peace in the midst of these challenging times. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Dave Sternbeck (Nuu-chah-nulth)
Port Angeles, Washington