When You’re Feeling Unsettled
In the middle of a crisis.
It will only take you a moment to recognize when I wrote this essay. It was in the season that rocked the world—and our world. We were reminded of our total dependence on God. If you find yourself in a crisis, today, turn to Him and be reminded again of His love and care for you.
This is a time of struggle. In the middle of the lethal virus that has swept our world in weeks, I feel unsettled.
What has happened to my faith? Where is my stability?
One night last week, I woke up at two a.m. and could not go back to sleep. It’s not unusual for me to wake up and feel the need to pray. Not saying I’m always eager to jump out of my bed and respond to that nudging. Sometimes I do—sometimes I don’t.
There was something different, though, this time around. I felt a sense of heaviness and foreboding. By trial and error, I’m learning to recognize when the enemy is at work. He knows our weaknesses and loves to make us feel unsettled—to breed confusion, anxiety, or loneliness.
As I write this, we are in the middle of a pandemic that has crisscrossed continents. We’ve watched the news reports and seen country after country besieged by the virus now known as COVID-19.
As I write this, the pandemic has arrived at our doorstep.
Grocery and the big box stores are wiped clean, the result of pure panic. Some days, I wake early and head out to hunt for the essentials. Just this morning, I was glad to find a package of bacon and bags of frozen corn—and elated to discover a small carton of half-and-half for my coffee. There was, however, no toilet paper to be found.
Maybe you, like me, are struggling. Yes, I’m still reading my Bible. The current devotional book I’m using continues to bless me. Worship music encourages me. Online church lifts my thoughts heavenward, and the sermon reminds me to trust in God.
But the truth is I am struggling.
What will tomorrow hold for my family? My husband, having just come through cancer treatment, falls in the immune-compromised category. My parents are senior adults in the eighties age range. I have three young grandsons. My daughter is a nurse supervisor in a hospital unit now designated for COVID-19 patients.
Many in our communities are experiencing reduced work hours or have lost the ability to earn income. Schools have closed, and parents are struggling to either arrange childcare or take on the role of teacher. Others are trying to adapt to working from home.
Then, some have contracted the virus and are sick. These numbers are growing daily. Life as we know it is drastically altered.
We are unsettled.
The enemy knows we are in a weakened state. He knows we are walking around in a fog, wondering what is happening in our world. He sees us—unsettled in the middle of a pandemic.
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.”
One of the best spiritual tools you can develop is to sense when the enemy is working and call him out. He seems to enjoy attacking me in the night hours. A few years back, I picked up this tip from a Bible study I was involved in.
When he comes to me in this manner, as soon as I am awake enough to realize what’s happening, I say, “Satan, you have no place in my life. You must go now!” Sometimes, I say it repeatedly. “Satan, you must go—Satan, you must go—Satan, you must go.”
This is a nighttime attack we are walking through. In the darkness of uncertainty and things unknown, we become unsettled. If our life is anything, right now, it is unsettled.
Will you join me in doing two things?
First, we must recognize this season of darkness has come from darkness himself—the enemy of our souls. Second, we must wake up and call him out on it.
No matter what time of day or night the enemy comes at you with unsettled feelings of confusion, anxiety, loneliness, or whatever emotion he knows has the potential to get to you, determine to rise and call him out.
In the middle of this pandemic, God needs us not to be unsettled but to stand firm—stable, unwavering, and secure in Him.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”