A Breakthrough is Coming

Update: the Africa Mercy is now docked in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. This blog post is to encourage you in these weird times!

Warning: please bear with me because there will be a lot (by a lot, I mean A LOT) of song references in this blog post, but who doesn't love music? :)

I am currently sitting in my cabin on the Africa Mercy in Tenerife. We sailed from Dakar, Senegal to Tenerife, and through all this crazy about the coronavirus, the Academy on board is probably one of only a few places where students are going to school in person :). Well, we are very different though, there are only 8 people in all of junior high and high school, so.....
Anyways, we are entertaining ourselves here with school and games and movies and any other activities while we are quarantined.

A lot has happened in a short amount of time. A lot of people's brains haven't quite caught up yet, and the world's present situation has been hitting people hard, physically as well as emotionally.

First thing to remember: God is in control

He knows what He's doing and He knows why. God made the universe and the earth and everything else that could possibly exist! All that stuff is complicated to humans, but God understands it all. According to Medical News Today you have around 30 to 40 trillion cells in your body!
That's a lot of zeros- 40,000,000,000,000
That's a lot of cells!
And God has made them all and is in control of them all. God has made all sorts of complex things that our minds can't comprehend, like this virus. While people are finding out more about it every day, there is still a lot that we don't know. But God knows it all, He knew when it was going to start, He knows when it is going to end, and everything in between.  Trust God because He is in control.

Almost every Thursday on the ship we have a community meeting. I was sitting in one last week listening people tell how they have experienced everything that has happened in the past couple of weeks, and they showed a video with some clips from the last month.
As I watched, I could see that there is a lot of pain in our present circumstances. It's like we're living in the dark.

Have you ever gone to bed and then woke up and thought, "Man, this night just seems to last forever!" Maybe that's how some people feel right now. The night just seems to last forever!

Second thing to remember: The sun will rise at some point

I'm no expert in science, and I haven't studied the sun, so don't take my word on this. But, according to what makes sense throughout history and what makes sense in my tiny 8th grade brain, there is a very small chance that the sun won't rise in the morning.

I mean, it always does.
It has to at some point, unless the world decides to stop spinning or the sun decides to flip the OFF switch. But I don't think that that will happen any time soon.
There is a song by Britt Nicole called "The Sun is Rising" and part of the lyrics (I'm picking and choosing) say:

And the night can only last for just so long
Lift up your eyes and see
The sun is rising

The night can only last for just so long. The coronavirus won't last forever. It will end at some point. And a big thing to remember in the waiting is that God's timing is perfect! I am reading the book of John and as Jesus goes about his days, there are multiple things that show that God's timing is perfect.

• John 7:6 Jesus is told by his brothers to go to the festival of tabernacles, but he tells them "My time is not yet here"
• John 7:30 The people were trying to seize him, but "no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come"
• John 8:20 They were going to seize him again, but no one did "because his hour had not come yet"

There are more examples, but those are just a few. God knows the month, the week, the day, the hour, the second that this virus will end. We just have to trust Him. Let His will be done because He has a good plan.

Elevation Worship has a song called "Do It Again" and it says:

I've seen you move, you move the mountains

And I believe I'll see you do it again

You made a way when there was no way 

And I believe I'll see you do it again

Your promise still stands

Great is Your faithfulness, faithfulness

I'm still in Your hands

This is my confidence, You have never failed me yet

His plans never fail!

Third thing to remember: Don't be blinded by the darkness

How can you be blinded by the darkness?

Well, the darkness is all the stressful things right now, the worry, the fear, the negative thoughts. When you focus on that stuff, there is a possibility that it will blind you to the light. Like in the song from above, God has moved mountains before, He will do it again. 

A song called "Haven't Seen It Yet" by Danny Gokey says:

Have you been praying and you still have no answers?

Have you been pouring out you heart for so many years?
Have you been hoping that things would have changed by now?
Have you cried all the faith you had through so many tears?
Don't forget the things that He has done before
And remember He can do it all once more

Don't forget the things that He has done before! Look for the light! Some things that God has done before are:

• Daniel 6 "My God send his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions"
• Ezekiel 37:1-14 "This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.....Then you will know that I am the Lord"
• Exodus 14 "Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it in to dry land. The waters were divided..."
• Matthew 17:20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you"
• Matthew 21:21 Jesus replied, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.
• John 11:43-44 When he has said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus come out!" The dead man came out...
• John 9:6-7 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means "Sent"). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
• Matthew 28:5-6 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, he has rise, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

God has done so many great things! Just take a moment to remember what He has done! And know that He can do it again.

Fourth thing to remember: Patiently Wait for the Sunrise (check the second thing to remember)

Like I said before, the sun will rise at some point, but in God's timing (which is perfect!). Wait patiently and trust Him. In a really good book by Sadie Robertson called Live Fearless she says:

"Though we can't see where life will take us, God can. And He knows every little dot we need to go through in order for the big picture to look like it's supposed to."

(Just FYI she is comparing it to a connect the dots picture)

God knows all that needs to happen for the picture to be complete! Let go of fear, know that God is in control and that He knows what He's doing. He has a good plan, TRUST HIM!!

A song that can encourage you today is called "Won't Stop Now" by Elevation Worship. It says:

I know a breakthrough is coming

By faith I see a miracle

My God made me a promise 

And it won't stop now

A breakthrough is coming! God keeps his promises! The sun will rise, a breakthrough is coming.

Imagine this:
You wake up one morning after the longest night ever (the kind where it takes forever to fall asleep) to your mom, dad, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa (whoever you choose!) running in and they exclaim:
"Look______(your name)!" It's been a long night but look! The sun is rising! And it's nothing like we've ever seen before! Come look!

The sun will rise.
A breakthrough is coming.

From,
Georgia :)


Credit:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318342 for telling me how many cells are in your body! :)

google.com for the definition of 'pestilence'

Sadie Robertson for the quote from her Live Fearless book

But wait! There's more!

Read this:

Psalm 91

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High

    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

    my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you

    from the fowler’s snare

    and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,

    and under his wings you will find refuge;

    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night,

    nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

    nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side,

    ten thousand at your right hand,

    but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes

    and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”

    and you make the Most High your dwelling,

no harm will overtake you,

    no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you

    to guard you in all your ways

they will lift you up in their hands,

    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone

You will tread on the lion and the cobra;

    you will trample the great lion and the serpent

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;

    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name

He will call on me, and I will answer him;

    I will be with him in trouble,

    I will deliver him and honor him

With long life I will satisfy him

    and show him my salvation.”

pestilence(n)

1. a fatal epidemic disease
2. Or you can think of it as COVID-19!

And if you feel extra inspired, you can read Psalm 91 in these different versions: MSG, NLT, TPT