“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” – Hebrews 3:12-13 (NIV).
It’s hard to fully understand the full impact this pandemic has had and will have on our lives. Yet, one thing is certain: God is sovereign. This is the truth of Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” God works all things together for His good purposes.
God’s awe-inspiring, miraculous, all-knowing sovereignty means that even while the world is under siege by a deadly virus, we can live knowing that God can use even this for His glory. No matter what happens, God is sovereign and is still able to make these things work together for good.
There has not been much “good news” recently. But there are still opportunities, even in a pandemic. One possible opportunity while we deal with the virus is to slow down and focus on our relationship with God. Before the virus, we were moving faster than ever before. We’re addicted to speed, obsessed with hurry. We are in this continuous struggle to accomplish more things and participate in more events in less time. In addition, we can’t go out as we normally would, so there isn’t as much to do. That makes this time a great opportunity to focus on our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
You see, our relationship with God is like any other relationship in the sense that it requires both parties investing time and energy into it for it to grow. God is invested: Paul reminds us in Romans 5:8 that God was invested in this relationship while we were still sinners. God was so invested that His Son Jesus died for you so that you could enter into a relationship with Him. God is invested and God desires to see our relationship with Him grow. During the pandemic, this is an opportunity to invest in that relationship with Him.
During this pandemic, spend time in His Word, spend time in prayer, and spend time with other believers. We are not able to be with other believers as normal, but many of us have more time to spend in His word and in prayer. Jesus told us in Matthew 7:7 that when we seek Him we will find Him. Some of the best ways to seek God is by searching His Word and talking with Him in prayer. Those practices may have gotten moved down the priority list due to having so many things to do. But now that we aren’t as busy, we need to take advantage of this opportunity by investing extra time into our relationship with God now.
Discussion Questions:
- What are some steps we can take this week to strengthen our relationship with God?