The Pandemic and Spiritual Despair

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to a special-edition series of The Kingdom Perspective.

The coronavirus has many of us feeling overwhelmed and maybe even incompetent in the routine tasks of our life and work. This is true spiritually, as it is vocationally, and it leaves many of us feeling like a failure of a Christian. Spiritual despair is settling in, as the accusations of the devil flood our conscience. What should we do?

The great Martin Luther gives some advice in a letter to a young man who had become overwhelmed with similar spiritual despair. He counsels him:

“By all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone….”

For us this may mean, we must call a friend, perhaps several friends, and ask for prayer. But it is what Luther says next that is most potent, for it draws its strength from the very heart of the gospel.

“[The] devil is conquered by mocking and despising…, not by resisting and arguing with him. . .
“When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus:
‘I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it?
Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means.
For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf.
His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Where he is, there I shall be also.’”

My friends, even when your faith fails, the faithfulness of Jesus does not.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.”

~ 2 Timothy 2 (ESV)


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