While the words of Jerry Lee Lewis – There’s a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on – may sound appropriate, what Jerry was referring to in 1964 isn’t what’s shakin’ today.
Heb 12:26-28 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken — that is, created things — so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
In the future (a day we will never know until it arrives) this disposition of grace will come to a close in total upheaval and both this earth and heaven will come to a tragic end. It’s then that everything will be shaken and dissolved. With all that is going on around us – earthquakes, famine, pestilence, wars – is that day here? There are some out there who believe that this corona virus is a sign that it has begun and they are living in fear. Taking that view totally misses what is going on all around us and Hebrews makes that clear.
God’s Word makes it very clear that He both causes and allows everything that goes on in our life down here, both individually and worldly. I think if we put what is going on in perspective, God is testing us now in order to shake out of us those things that are transient and temporal, not eternal. He wants us to be established in those things which cannot be shaken and will remain. This is nothing new to us as His bride. It is the meaning of all the tests and trials we face in life that test our faith. What we need to remember in this present trial, and all trials that come our way, is that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith and He is constantly proving our faith by bringing to light our weaknesses to prepare us for “the” testing that is coming.
The bottom line is that we are to let whatever is subject to change… change and pass away. Our challenge is to not shrink away from the sifting and shaking process because we have the One who loves us with a love that He will never diminish. He will never let us go into the judgement to come unprepared, rather He is giving us the armor to stand fast.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
This old hymn puts all this shakn’ in perspective …
Burn on, O fire of God, burn on,
Till all my dross is burned away,
Burn up the dregs of self and sin,
Prepare me for the testing day.