Leaving Room for God

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Proverbs 18:21

“The prognosis isn’t good.” “Scientists estimate…” “The coronavirus will…”, “The economy will…”, We live in a world where everything is predicted, estimated, extrapolated. Whether it’s something so personal as a recent doctor’s appointment that you’ve just had or whether it’s the 24- hour news cycle making dire forecasts and predictions, or even the arrival of a new phrase to our vocabulary, “the new normal.” While these projections should not be entirely disregarded, all of these things disregard the presence of God.

Practically speaking, we can hear things based on human observation and study and we can give life to it through our believing it or speaking it OR we can first say, “Lord, what is it you would have me believe. Lord, what is your prognosis or diagnosis for this situation.” For me, it’s tempting to agree or to hear what media outlets would say we can expect for this “new normal” following the pandemic. But I’m reminded of a time in my own life, when the doctor’s said that because my lungs were only functioning at 23%, there was little medically left to do for me. Except, wait out the next week. I not only believed I would make it through that week, but I would make it through and be better on the other side. Why? Because man’s prognosis is based on facts in the natural, or only what we can see. But when you go to God, you ask Him what He knows and sees, in the supernatural.

Not only do we have hope in that God’s ways are not ours and that God intervenes, and overthrows trajectories in this world, BUT we also have a very simple tool to agree with him. God has given us a powerful creative tool - our mouth and the words that we speak. In Proverbs and throughout the Bible, we are reminded those words we speak “are life or death.” It’s a two-edged sword, while we can agree with God, let our words be declarations of God too.

So when we hear media outlets speak of this pandemic, let’s agree that God is sovereign. That everything, including a virus, is under His authority.

“You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.” (Nehemiah 9:6)

When we are dealing with sickness, a hopeless situation, let’s speak life into the fact that nothing is hopeless with God.

“I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

When we are crying out for our leaders and our nation, let’s speak -

He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. (Daniel 2:12)

“and he said, “O Lord, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. (2 Chronicles 20:6)

Leaving room for God in my own life, means that we ask God to show me what He sees about any situation, in my own life or even something as large scale, like what’s going on with our nation. My prayer for each of us is that we ask for God’s perspective in everything, and that we use our own words and how we speak give life to and agree with God’s agenda.

Reflection Questions:

What are areas of my life where you are hopeless? Have you asked God to show you His way?

How does watching the news make you feel? Have you asked God what he has to say too?

What are ways that your mouth has agreed with what the world sees?

What are areas of our life that we can use our mouth to proclaim God’s goodness and sovereignty?

Our prayer:

Lord, we want to hear your voice.

We want to know what you have to say.

Lord, show me how to use my tongue to speak life, to speak in agreement with what you’re doing.

Rather, show us how we can agree with what you have to say.

You are sovereign, and your ways prevail.