God has an interesting way to slow us down! And using circumstances like this to reveal what we truly need! COVID-19 virus has people desperately grabbing and reaching for all they need! The shelves are empty and toilet paper scarce! So many people doing their best to prepare for the unknown, so they can take care of their families! However, The stores weren’t prepared for toilet paper sells to double or triple each day!When we Hope in Jesus, we trust Him in everything including our future because He’s our sovereign Lord who holds the world and everything in it together! He loves us all and knows everything we need to get through this! Nothing takes God by surprise because He is All knowing! The ways taught in this world is to get what you can while you can!! God says don’t worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34)! Jesus says, don’t be worried about perishable things like food (John 6:27). This reminds me back in the Old Testament how God told the Israelites to only gather the amount of manna you need for the day today because if you store over night it will go bad (Exodus 16). Consider this, God cares for all the sparrows, so how much more is he going to care for you? (Matthew 6:26)! Worry doesn’t add a single day to your life! We need to know what’s going on around us, but don’t let it consume us! In Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you are flows from it” when we guard our minds, we are sober minded, we can see more than just ourselves in a crisis! When fear of the unknown sneaks in, take each thought captive and line it up with what God says (2 Corinthians 10:5). The media has taken a lot of people captive in their minds! We can see scared people who aren’t trying to hurt anyone! So, what is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with All your heart, All your soul, All your mind, All your strength! And the second is this, LOVE your Neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40) We will treat others the way we want to be treated because we love God first! We will be Unified In Jesus by coming together the way we are called to do! We need to be united in what God says love is to get through this! (1 Corinthians 13)!
The fear of no toilet paper, along with many things like diapers, formula, wipes, soap, Medicine, food and other things have people traveling to other states to get supplies they need! It is causing so much craziness in many stores like empty shelves! Not even during a server storm have we ever seen this! My brother told me that a 24 hour grocery store had to close because they ran out of stuff to sell! Today, we were shopping at our local grocery store where they told everyone that you were allowed one package of toilet paper per customer! This reminds me of how God says don’t worry about tomorrow. While everyone was shopping because of the fear of the unknown, most people seemed focused on what they needed while others are buying things that they never would of bought before. The unknown has caused people to do what they wouldn’t normally do! Because most have never experienced something like! We are to love people through this hard time, and truly love everyone even people we don’t know! So when we depend on what the world can do in hard times, we are consumed by fears like the virus and the unknown! The world changes like shifting shadows but God never changes! God didn’t give us a spirit of fear but a sound mind! To be Sober minded is not trusting that the Toilet paper ect. will always be in supply, but trusting the one (Jesus) who provides all we need!
Our hope is in Jesus who holds All things together! Who loves us no matter what we have done! God wants us Now!! Just as we are to do a purpose designed to create something new in you which will change us from the inside and out! His mighty fingers, just like in the womb, are intricately weaving your mind and heart to be more like Him. When you eagerly seek Him first in all things and His will, the world and life will look different! You will begin to see how so many things get tangled up in a day robbing precious time God gave you with your family! In the busyness, to get prepared for a disaster or virus, we need to Stop and pray for Him to dissolve the things that don’t belong to Him in the day!Sometimes I say, is this how it’s supposed to be today? I literally have seen God rewrite my day in front of me, not that He changed His plans, because it’s already been written. It’s that God rewrites my day! Jesus is the regulator in us, keeping balance! This is where we have endless hope, Joy, peace! When you seek him first everything like a domino effect will fall into place according to His plan. Even the hard stuff (running out of supplies) will be worked out for good that we can’t see yet! Sometimes we may never see how it will turn out, but we do get to see all Gods promises unfold in the Bible! This is a gift from God that He unfolds for us everyday as we abide at His feet listening to his every living word! I pray continually God orders everyone’s steps for His will and not their own! I pray they take the time for each other because God uses interesting ways to slow us down! I’m confident God gives the desires of your heart if it according to His will! It’s His righteousness on us! Jesus paid the debt in full! The gift is free and not for one or two kinds of people but For ALL! Salvation is for for everyone because he loves us and want no one to be lost! He loves you before you were born and knew you before you took your first breath! He wove you in your mothers womb and knows All the days of your life! The thoughts He has for you are as numerous as the sand, (Psalm 139).
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever
James 1:16-17
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sistersEvery good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Psalm 100:5
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever,and his faithfulness to all generations.
John 6:27
But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Manf can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Colossians 1:15-20
The Son is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For in him all things were created:
things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;
all things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body,
the church;
he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead,
so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace through his blood,
shed on the cross.
John 6:35-40 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But, you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
This was beautifully scripted Michelle. And I love the reassurance of Gods love with the particular scripture that you use to describe our current situation. I have to remind myself that this too shall pass and that I will not hoard like my neighbor but that I will have faith that God will provide for my family and myself exactly what we need each day.
In times like this its hard to love some people that are just arrogant and down right disrespectful in the stores with all the craziness. And I know I should pray for them in that moment, but then I have to check my own attitude so I dont come off the same way.
And guarding our hearts and minds can be challenging only because the news and media has everyone so hyped up, which we need to take back the wheel and get into the Word of God rather than on the couch with Facebook.
It surprises me how we are on the same page on so many things, but reminds me that you are truly a blessing to my life and I thank our heavenly Father everyday that he brought me a sister like you.
Thank you for expressing your love and Gods loves for us through your blog.