Thought for the Day – Friday 27th March 2020
Bible reading – Psalm 46
Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Many of us are fearful at the moment. Fearful of coronavirus itself, fearful of the consequences for ourselves and our loved ones; fears, emotional, financial, practical. Boris’s latest measures are hardly unexpected as the British public have proved themselves to amazing thoughtless and incredibly selfish. These measures will have a profound impact on us all and more so as time goes by. But as Christians we need to be mindful of the promises made by our eternal, unchanging Father God. The psalmist draws our attention to God’s promise to be with her i.e. Jerusalem.
Jesus, the son of the Most High God made a similar promise to His people in Matthew 28:20
“lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
So even in these troubled times when everything is turned upside down. We can rely on those promises, for God ALWAYS keeps His promises. But we still need to learn a different way of living day to day which might be easier for some than others.
Our “normal” lives had come to be lived at breakneck speed, with deadline after deadline, with productivity and efficiency as our judges, leaving us scarcely enough time for ourselves, let alone even family and loved ones, and God, well He just didn’t get a look in. But now, as we are “confined to barracks” more than ever before, we are almost forced into living differently. We can rail against it, kick against the pricks and complain vigorously about it, or we can embrace it and see what blessings it will bring. We might even find time to be still, or even to “be still and know that I am God”.
Taking ourselves off silently and alone to a quiet place, while the kids are occupied with TV or reading or whatever, and finding a passage of scripture to read and ponder upon may yield blessing untold as we get back in touch and close to our Creator God who knows us better than we know ourselves Blessings indeed!