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* Note: I was unable to write a blog this week but recalled a number of devotionals I had written for my church to help lead throughout the lockdown of 2020’s Covid pandemic. When the vast majority of information being ingested by the average congregant at the time was from the news, it was important for our church to give regular spiritual direction. This week, I am posting one of those devotionals because I believe that the Scriptures hold eternal truths, regardless of the circumstances we’re currently in. So I hope you are benefitted from this look at Scripture that took place early on in the Covid-19 pandemic. *
DEUTERONOMY 8:1-3 – 8:1 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. 2 You shall remember all the ways which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
Knowing what we know about Israel’s trek out of Egypt, imagine how difficult it was for the actual people. Step out of the abstract and think of each individual mother, father, and child who struggled each day with the life of constant transition for 40 years. Now imagine looking ahead at this pandemic and God literally telling you, “I’m going to be with you. It’s going to be hard, and you’re going to be hungry, and you’re going to be scared and tired, but I’m going to be with you every step of the way. I’ll be with you, but this pandemic and quarantine is going to last 40 years.”
Where will you be in 40 years? How old will you be and how hard would it be knowing this pandemic as it stands currently is all you will know until then? Their struggle was real and you may struggle in real ways during this pandemic, despite for a much shorter time.
Hard times are not always bad though. They’re bad if they break a person. They’re good when they draw a person closer to God. In difficult times, it is a goal of the believer to learn to depend on God, to learn His wisdom, and to remember the times that He has walked with us through difficulties. And that’s the point – He’s walking with you through hard days and into the long and arduous journeys.
Who needs to hear that hope? Who do you know that needs to hear about a God who is faithful no matter the circumstances? Maybe it’s your family members, your neighbors, or your coworkers. It can take a global pandemic like ours to open up hearts in mass numbers unlike anything that the world has yet experienced.
However, maybe it’s you that needs to spend time meditating on this truth. Dive into Scripture and learn His faithfulness. Look back into your personal history and celebrate the times that God has shown you that He works generously in our most difficult times. Remember these things during this pandemic just as the Israelites were asked to remember His work in their time in the wilderness or His powerful hand during the Exodus.
Remember His faithfulness and remember His commandments. He has sent us to a “Promised Land” as our own eternal inheritance and it is our privilege, not only to benefit from His physical sustenance on this earth, but to enjoy His eternal sustenance as well. And it is our call to multiply in these times that leads us to share the hope that Christ has given us with all those who are desperate for it. In this way, they might be distracted from anxiety over physical sustenance because their focus has been drawn to something exponentially better in every way.