The righteous person will live by faith. Habakkuk 2:4

What do you do when crisis hits?  When the unthinkable happens in life?

My friend, Nadia, stands in the kitchen; strain visibly etched on her face.  For weeks, her country has been under relentless attack by an enemy.  Nadia cries out to God for strength and rescue.  And then she makes soup.   She makes a huge pot of soup for those who help pack and deliver food, between air raid sirens.

Another of my heroes, Elisabeth, was a missionary wife and young mother when her husband was murdered by those he was trying to help. Later, she would lose her second husband to cancer.  Elisabeth grieved.  And then she did what needed to be done—the ironing.

The Bible says that “The righteous shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4) and the real-life faith of Nadia and Elisabeth speaks powerfully to me. “After the death of my first husband…I was faced with many confusions and uncertainties,” Elisabeth wrote.  “It was a great help to me simply to do the next thing.”[1]

The simple, needful tasks that these women continued doing were acts of praise, demonstrating their faith–their conviction that God will keep his promises (Psalm 145:13), He will give us strength (Isaiah 41:10), and He will comfort us (2 Corinthians 1:3).

Has the unthinkable happened in your life? God’s promises are still true.  They are for you and are found in His letter, the Bible.  Ask Him to speak them personally to you as you read or listen to them today.  And then do the next thing.

 

Resource reading: Hebrews 11:4-38

[1] Elliot, E. (n.d.). “Do the Next Thing” . storage.snappages.site. Retrieved March 15, 2022, from https://storage.snappages.site/CS8HTG/assets/files/Children-Do-the-Next-Thing-by-Elisabeth–14.pdf