The unknown
Sequestered but not silenced…is my feeling right now in this season of change in our world brought about by the infectious virus outbreak. Due to technology, we can be quarantined from the outside world and our families, but not disconnected from them. I send and receive numerous messages each day. The incoming messages are mostly about vital health info and hope. These are from my Christian friends or ministries. The ‘gloom and doom’ comes from the other voices.
Fear of the unknown and its consequences can be suffocating for many. That is why we need each other to speak hope into our lives. In scripture, Paul was always sending letters to his fellow believers, encouraging them to stay strong in their faith in the gospel and not allow its enemies to discourage them and fall away. He wrote several of his epistles from prison. Sequestered, but not silenced! We have the New Testament today because of him and others the Spirit led to communicate truth. When all is said and done, truth, God’s truth, is the only substance to life.
Communication
Hebrews says it well. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Vss. 10.24,25 ESV). Right now you may not be able to meet together in groups larger than 10, but praise God he has given us Zoom, Google, Christian apps, phones, and other means of ‘communicating’. Through the use of these, we can still encourage one another.
God has made us in Their image, relational. It’s how we serve one another, how we express love in many ways. We were not made to be quarantined monks, although some did choose to and served God well. I believe this sequestered time is being used to show us our dependency on the Lord, and our need for each other. I think there will be a new appreciation for Him and others. Otherwise, it will have been wasted time.
While the Spirit spoke through Jeremiah about Israel, this too speaks for us today. “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul” (Jer. 32. 38-41 ESV).
Hope
Do you see how committed God is for his people? Reread and let these verses soak deep down in your spirit. I mean every word, every phrase, every promise. If ever a voice of hope was spoken, this one ranks at the very top. We need to know where our hope, our temporal and eternal security lies. When the God of the universe tells you that he is committed to his people “with all my heart and all my soul”, what other hope do you need?
Do you believe this, really believe it? He can’t love you more than he already has—he sacrificed his only Begotten Son on a cruel cross. What else does he have to do to prove his love set out in Jeremiah?
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom. 8.35 ESV) The resounding answer is in verse 37. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” It then goes on to state that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The word of God can never be sequestered or silenced. Hallelujah!!! O, and while you are being sequestered, practice being silent before him. He has so much truth to reveal to you.
