Truth is something our post-modern societies have tried to turn to mush. Never-the-less there are some truths, including hard sciences, such as the fact of gravity and our need for air and water to survive.
Fear is the commodity that the enemy of our souls is pushing hard these days. Do we have reason to be concerned and careful? Absolutely! We need to do what professionals are telling us to help stop the spread of the disease. Limiting our consumption of fear-mongering media is also a really good idea.
On equal footing with washing our hands and limiting the intake of fear, we do well to look to the source of our existence. There is One who holds all things together. This week I keep coming back to Psalm 121 I encourage you to read it slowly, looking for the truth you need to hear today, allowing the character of our Maker to push out some of the fear.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.
I am not making magic promises, but I am pointing us to the One who knows everything and who sent His Son for us. As we lift our focus from the problem and the fear the problem spreads, to gaze on the beauty and goodness of God, our fear is more easily lifted from us. That is when we are open to love.
Love is the power that our Living God offers us as we depend on the Holy Spirit living in us. Again, please read and breathe. With each breath, put off and breathe out fear, then inhale and put on the qualities available to us through the presence of God in our lives. Stop and soak anywhere along the way that suits you. Let truth sink in.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:12-17
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13
