Together we are strong.
'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'
Brothers and sisters, if you’ve been watching or listening to any media, you may now realize that we are going through trying times. A “pandemic” as it is termed. We are in the clutches of an unseen virus with such magnitude and potential of spread that we all need to take heed.
Proverbs 10:17 states: He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth. AMEN
This virus by whatever name, can literally take your breath away. It doesn’t care who you are or where you are. Without ever realizing, you could become infected, going on to damage yourself or harm someone you may love. It’s a microorganism that’s invisible to our naked eyes, but has the potential to affect everyone we know, or may have known. AMEN
You may ask, what happened? Well… just maybe we took our eyes off the prize. Just maybe we believed in something or someone that was only human. Just maybe we slipped up.
Just maybe we took God’s love for granted.
Brothers and sisters, we don’t have time for the blame game. Sometime, troubling times require all nations to band together as one. With God, and the gifts he has provided our scientist and doctors, and others we may not even consider, we can fix this mess we are in, or we can ignore the talents God has so graciously given us and suffer unnecessarily, and we may forget the meaning of what we believed was a beautiful life? AMEN
Let’s think about this for a moment… We all are familiar with the words “friend” or “loved one”. These terms have been with us for as long as we could remember. Someone you can kick it with, someone that has your back, someone you can share your deepest thoughts, feelings and wishes. Someone that understands you when you are in a great mood or a bad mood, someone that gives you encouragement when it seems like the whole world is falling down around you. Someone that truly loves you… AMEN
Now imagine, losing your friends. Imagine not having someone to love. Imagine heartbreak, worry, and mental destress of waiting on an end that you have no control of. You thought you could do this all alone, you thought things would not affect you, but then you find yourself wishing you had listened to those that had your best interest at hand. You find yourself needing someone to care.
Psalm 46:1 says: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Brothers and sisters, right about now we all need help. There’s a storm out there and we can’t see it, but it can attack us personally, or reach out to the ones we love. In times like these, I think of the words “A blanket of protection”.
So what does that mean? Well that means that we “all” work together to protect us “all”. It’s not about me first, it’s not about rich or poor, it’s not about highly or lowly favored. It’s about protection of our sisters and brothers, be it blood, friend, or foe. It’s about doing what God has said, about being fellow helpers.
3 John1:8 states: We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow helpers to the truth
Brothers and sisters, listen to me when I say, just when you believe you are greater than another, that other is who you need to lift you up. It may not be our brother or sister that lifts us up. It may not be that familiar home boy that has our back. It may be the neighbor across the way. It may be that we have to bridge a gap of understanding in order to get that blanket of protection that covers us all completely. After all, an alliance begins by being neighborly with those God has placed in your path.
Proverbs 3:29 states “Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.
Brothers and sisters, we may speak different languages and practice different habits, but we all have something in common, we want to live, we want to love, we want to laugh, we want to enjoy our moments in this life God has granted us. AMEN
Have you ever thought that God allows sorrows to come into our lives, and in that end, those sorrows have a purpose. Whether it be tragedy, sorrow, depression, disappointment, or grief; these sorrows are gonna eventually visit the house of every person. Whatever the case, you’ll need help. You can't always do it alone.
Yes, God is there to help you in a time of need. But he also believes that once you've concurred your sorrow, pain, and struggles, you’ll be there with a God given strength and understanding to help someone else in need. Will you be there for them? Are you willing to help another as God has provided for you? Are you? Are you willing to do your part?
Brothers and sisters, we must help! We all are susceptible to sorrow. We all are susceptible to illness. We may not be as infallible as we are fooled to believe.
Right now we all need to step back and re-evaluate our lives and our understanding of what’s really important. I have to believe that we don’t want to be in a world without all of the colors of the rainbow. I believe we as a people, want to be amongst the young, the old, the funny, the sad, the swift, the slow, the foreign, the natives, the exotic, and the ordinary. We want to be in a world of mystery and beauty, full of imagination and life.
2 Corinthians 1:4 states: Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Brothers and sisters, we may live in a day and time in which people seem to want to go about blindly and ignore the consequences of their actions or non-actions. They may take the attitude that: “it’s not their fault, or throw in the blame game, and complain about what they think they need to be doing right now, and there's nothing they can do to change the hand that’s been dealt. My God!
Brothers and sisters, when you do this, you're playing the sad relenting “blame” game, but it's our own self inflicting actions that will caused the consequences we may all face.
My friends, my family, my people, we can rise above all our struggles, and stomp out the progression of this virus if we want to, with God’s help and our conviction to do what’s right. There’s victory in Jesus if we want it! But if we continue to play the blame game, or ignore the warnings, we could be spiraling down a path of sure pain and heartaches.
Ephesians 5:15 says “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise”.
Right now:
• Maybe you can’t go to work,
• Maybe you have to work,
• Maybe you can’t go to school,
• Maybe you can’t run that marathon,
• Maybe you can’t commune in the church house,
• Maybe you can’t see that great ball game,
• Maybe you’ll lose that thing you thought you needed,
• And, just maybe we’ll learn something we thought we never needed.
We continuously gaze at our phones and IPads and other devices watching the multitude of half-truths and fantasies, skipping pass the mention of good and God. We are so pre-occupied with all these things that we believe will give us multiple “likes”, that we have forgotten about how God would “like” to see us grow spiritually.
Brothers and sisters, maybe we’ve been so preoccupied with work and school, and people and friends that we just don’t take the time to study God’s word. It might be said, that we as humans are not willing to sit down and take time for God. Maybe this is our time to read. Maybe this is our time to do some good in word or deed. Maybe we all need to set back and read that book that has the greatest stories ever told and the most powerful movies ever written. AMEN
Proverbs 13:20 states “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed
Maybe this virus that can take our breath away will be the same virus that leads us to “quilt” a blanket of protection from around the world, through love and a willingness to understand that we are “all” in this together. God gave us a spiritual soul that has an inner nature of care that makes us want to give that helping hand. We are the humanitarians, the caretakers, those that will lend a hand when no one else will. We are God's chosen caretakers, God's healing souls. AMEN
Colossians 3:12-14 states:" Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
My brothers, sisters, friends, family, & neighbors near and far, Together we have the power to change the cycle, Together we have the power to “stump out the curve. AMEN
