Covid-19, the virus that shook the world and woke the saints of God up to a new reality. A reality that united all of us. One that made us realise that, on the one hand it was no longer about the collective, but about us as “the individual”, and on the other hand that it’s all about “ the body”. COVID-19 brought about the birth of the church without walls.
We may still be reeling from the fact that we can no longer meet each Sunday, we may be fearful every time another human instinctively reaches out to hug us, we may want to see our nearest and dearest but the thought of contracting, or even spreading, the virus stops us in our tracks… it is in our nature to want human interaction and this “demon”virus is doing all it can to contravene what comes naturally to us.
How do we handle ourselves in these times? The Bible says, we should give thanks “in all things ”, not “for” all things so let’s begin with that. Thank God for all that you’ve accomplished over this period, thank Him for you and your family’s lives because even if you got a positive test result for COVID-19, guess what? You are alive and reading this right now so give thanks.
You may not meet for church like before but there are smaller house churches springing up around you every day and if you don’t have one but feel led to start one in your area, then by all means do, that’s what it was like in Bible times… people went from house to house and broke bread.
That’s another thing we can do, break bread, have communion, share the cup, whatever you may choose to call it, do so in remembrance of our Lord. I love breaking bread! and while I haven’t quite cultivated the habit of doing so daily, I believe it to be a powerful ceremony that can be done every day and at every opportunity. It reminds me of how much God loves me, it’s got to be a crazy kind of love if He was willing to let His one and only son die for me right? That’s why I often say, “God is crazy in love with me”.
When I break bread I am reminded that I have a COVENANT PARTNERSHIP with the Almighty Creator of the heavens and earth. I mean not only that, but to compound it He counts the hairs on my head and knows if one falls out, He has my name inscribed on the palm of His hand and He calls me the apple of His eye, as well as His beloved. My people, here is a God that bottles my tears, spreads a table in the presence of my enemies and then, makes them to be at peace with me. A God who is Jehovah, my covenant promise keeper, the one that shows up as Rapha when I am ill, shalom when I am in need of peace, Nissi when I need covering, Jehovah jireh when I need provision, need I go on?? This is the Person who has chosen…CHOSEN! to partner with me. That’s enough to make you rejoice and give thanks right here. He cannot break our covenant! Wooohoooo!!
When we think about Gods goodness towards us it really should bring us to our knees. I said at the beginning of this post that COVID 19 brought us to a place of “isolation” for want of a better word. It made us see ourselves, no church crowd to hide behind, no one to “do the work of the ministry” as it were, and no one to blame for our growth or lack thereof. When there’s nobody but you, worship is a great place to start. Worship Him for who He is and not for what you can get, worship God because you love Him, not just cos you’re in a jam and you need help. Worship God with all your heart and soul, picture Him in your minds eye, imagine Him sitting beside you; thing is though, you can only really worship who you know. Get to know Him… COVID-19 has given you time to do that. Many people now work from home so that means you can use your “travel time“ to search the scriptures (thank you Jesus, what the enemy meant for evil can be put to good use!)
Build up your time of personal fellowship, intimacy is key. God is a jealous lover and as such He requires ALL of your heart, mind and soul. God wants you completely, that means you have to die to yourself and focus on living for Christ successfully. The key to doing that is relationship. When you relate to the One who loves you He rubs off on you and you learn how to love like He does. Love becomes your hallmark and you no longer see people through the eyes of the flesh, on the contrary you know them after the spirit ie through Gods eyes. When that happens, you find yourself loving even your enemies, the ones the devil sets in your life to trip you up and the very same ones God uses to build character in you.
When you get to that place of knowing Him intimately, worship becomes a delight and prayer, an opportunity to speak a little and listen a lot (because He knows more than you do and knows what you’re going to ask before you do, there’s no point talking endlessly).
Back to the subject of hallmarks. Your hallmark speaks of what people associate you with when they see you. What you ooze of. When you get familiar with God you should ooze Love because that is who He is and so that should be who you are.
I’m sure you are all familiar with the great love verses in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 well our job is to embody that kind of love and that is to COVID-19 we have the extra time and solitude we need to do it as individuals so that when we come in contact with the rest of the body, they experience our love.