Encouragement for saints in a season of lockdown.
It’s Friday morning, and it’s been a busy week back after three weeks of leave. There’s always so much to do isn’t there? Even during my time of leave, without the regular concerns of work to occupy me, the thought occurred to me more than once: “God doesn’t take time off!” (and nor does sin!). Everyday is a day of walking with him, and everyday there are new things that He has to show us. The idea of being stagnant is entirely foreign to the faith of the Bible. We are pilgrims and “sojourners” (Ps 119:19), and each day as we rise we are called to keep walking – just as Israel arose each day in the wilderness and continued to walk.
Bearing in mind this pilgrim mindset that we are called to embrace, I think that one of our great challenges in life is living in the moment. While reminiscing is a blessing, and remembering is important, we can also be tempted to live in the past. On the other hand, while planning ahead is wise, and hope for the future is essential, we can also be tempted to idolize the future and miss out on what’s right before us.
All we have is this very moment. 8:56am on Friday the 18th of September, in the year 2020. I can’t re-live what’s gone by, and I can’t fast-forward to what’s ahead. Our lives are the sum total of the way that we use our moments. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as the saying goes. So then it’s important to remain focused on what we have in this moment. If the Lord wills, I have a few hours before me now to give final preparations to the sermons that I will record this afternoon. Who knows but that the words I, and other preachers, prepare in the next few hours may prove instrumental in the salvation of a soul? How about your morning? You might say something to your children this morning that shapes them for a lifetime. You might have a conversation with a neighbour that opens a door to share the gospel. Your diligence at work might prompt a colleague to wonder what it is that makes you different. Your endurance of a trial might give you just the right words to say to a sufferer in one year’s time.
Every moment matters. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Perhaps you wish you were in better times? Our ongoing lockdown is a real source of trial isn’t it? Worshipping together is one way in which God significantly helps us to grow spiritually, sharing in fellowship is another – and both of these things have been denied us at this time. It is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18), and yet to a large extent this is the situation in which we find ourselves. It is particularly difficult for those who live at home alone. On top of this, the “regular” trials of life continue. Growing old is a trial, sickness is a trial, serving God at work is a trial, loving one another in our families calls us to be self-sacrificial, which is difficult.
Perhaps you feel like Frodo in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy: “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” And so the encouragement I want to give to you at this particular time, as you have taken a few moments now to read these words, is to use well what time God has given you this day. What opportunities do you have before you today?
Time is a limited resource, and we have great need of wisdom to use it well! Like Gandalf, I wish you didn’t have to live to see such times, I wish times were better for you all. But that is not for me to decide. The encouragement I want to offer you, then, is the encouragement to pause and reflect on what opportunities you have in your life – right now. What opportunities do you have to seek after God? “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6). What opportunities do you have to bless and encourage the people in your life? Let me encourage you to prayerfully, in reliance upon Almighty God, pursue those opportunities today.
Soli Deo Gloria!