If we can use one word to describe the past year the one I would use would be: Exhausting.
Everything about the Coronavirus event has overtaxed our minds, our hearts, our families, and almost every nook and cranny of our lives. To make things worse we have no idea what the world is going to look like from day-to-day and the media has made things worse by sending out contradictory information. This has led to strained relationships and an unfortunate distrust of one another as we each seek to make the best decisions for our families and ourselves. The world wants us to judge one another harshly, to say one person is bringing danger to everyone else or shout that someone is being silly and letting fear run their lives. None of that is helpful or a particularly Christian way to handle disagreement, especially when we know so little about the situation.
So what can we do? Especially to help one another.
Well, for the Believer the answer is pretty simple, in fact Paul writes a whole chapter on it in the Book of Romans. In 14:19 he says, “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” But what makes for peace? Slogans don’t do much other than provide surface-level comfort. What’s the real deal? Throughout this chapter the Apostle has been reminding the Roman Christians to think upon the higher things. In other words what is more important to the body of Christ? The meat that we eat or the life that we have in Jesus?
Let’s go back to the word I used at the beginning: Exhausting. When you are tired you make poor decisions and you treat people poorly. So, again, what can we do about that in our desire to “make peace” and “edify one another”? Well, what use are you making of the means of grace through prayer and the reading of the Word? Are you building up yourself and others in and for the strength of Christ? Not in a sloganeering way, but in a real, tangible manner that is bringing results. This is the message of Isaiah 40:29, “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”
For example, when Paul was writing to the men and women of Colosse, he says that they, “do not cease to pray for you”... and this was for a purpose: “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;” – Colossians 1:10-11
We find strength for our exhausted souls in and through one source: Christ. And we can see the fruit of that praying for one another by not only the way we love holiness and righteousness, but in the way we treat those of our number whom we have disagreement on how to approach this Covid-19 world.
May we seek peace in Jesus.