Keep the Faith with Ty’Ann Brown: The Heat Is On

Hello everyone, I’m Ty’Ann Brown, encouraging you to keep the faith.

The last few weeks in the northeast of the United States, have been hot. I mean really hot, like muggy, sticky, uncomfortable type of hot. I’m talking about you daydreaming about snowstorms [chuckles] that type of hot.

And yes, well, it is the middle of summer so I guess none of us should be surprised, right? After all, God has made all the seasons as it’s been told to us in Ecclesiastes 3, that says that, “to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the sun.” So yes, there is purpose even when it is hot and sticky and uncomfortable. There is a purpose to your season. Sometimes God turns the heat up in our lives.

We’re all going through a fire right now with the coronavirus pandemic. In this unprecedented situation, illness and unemployment, the fear of the unknown, it’s all burning away our old lives and many of the things that we’ve taken for granted. And many of us are dealing with fires in our own life that we’re fighting. I’m talking about difficulties that they’re just too hot to handle.

And so we ask God, “Why is this happening?” And then, “God, what am I supposed to do?” Have you ever heard the expression, “The heat is on? Of course you have. It’s even the name of a popular song within the movie Beverly Hills Cop, which is one of my favorite movie series, by the way. But it basically means that the situation, whatever it is, has gotten super hot, and the pressure is on to fix it.

But what you have to remember is that, the heat, this high pressure situation, it may feel uncomfortable, but God often uses these experiences to test you and to grow you. Consider someone who has decided to run a marathon. Their training is often grueling and overwhelming and just downright painful, and they may even want to give up. But when you learn to persevere through the pain, you are sure to come out on the other side.

So God uses the heat not to burn us during our trials of life, but rather to grow us spiritually. Second Corinthians 4:17 says, “for our light affliction, “which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” So the next time the heat is on, make sure you keep your eyes focused on the glory of God to help you get through to the other side. God bless you, keep the faith.