My doorframe has some food packages and some scripture. What is the correct balance? Is “balance” even the right thing to look at? This going to be different for everyone. We are all at different places in our walk with Jesus and our life experience here on Earth. So what does your doorframe look like?
16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. 22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him-
~ Deuteronomy 11:16-22 NIV
I have to say that being a Christian during this pandemic has made my experience more peaceful. It has kept the focus off of the fear and more on eternal things.
You and I both know those are just words. As well-intentioned as they may be, they are not actions and a person’s true heart. Putting our intentions into action during this pandemic has been enlightening.
What have you done with writing scripture on your doorframe? How have you fixed the Word of God in your hearts?
Where you are with this will look different from where I am. There is no right answer because we are uniquely made and at different places on our walk with the Lord, yet God’s answer is clear. We are to have already written scripture on doorframes and fixed it in our hearts and souls.
Is it too late if you have not been doing this, heck no!! That is what a pandemic is all about, opportunity. The Lord is all about opportunity for eternal salvation That is what He died for and that certainly is what He lives for.
We are human, fear sneaks in during a pandemic, let’s be totally honest. But we don’t have to let it reside in us, we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit to reside and shine the light, not fear.
So, as an honest Christian, for the most part, I do not live in fear or anxiety over the pandemic, but there are fleeting thoughts and waves of angst. I choose to acknowledge them, pray about them, and leave them with Jesus. He is in charge of all of this. He has this. This is God’s battle, not mine.
I also monitor my packages at my doorframe. How many are there because of common sense and how many are there out of fear? This will be clearly different for everyone so we need not be judge-and-jury over our neighbor’s doorframes.
God made me, inside out, long before I was formed in my mother’s womb. He knows me better than I know myself. I continually ask for guidance to “balance” common sense and faith. I do not like the word balance with faith in the same sentence but I don’t know how else to explain it.
God created us with a brain and common sense, use them while practicing faith. We should never live in fear, God makes that clear in scripture. But sometimes we forget the flip side, God really did give us a brain to use. This is a pandemic and we can use our brain and common sense to do what we individually believe the Holy Spirit is leading us to do.
Do not judge others. Focus on yourself. What is God telling YOU?
Stuck and don’t know what God is telling you? Dig into scripture and He will reveal to you exactly what He wants at this given moment.
A pandemic is a perfect time to start (or keep) reading the Bible-In-A-Year. It’s free and you have the time due to the pandemic isolation.
Share scripture, faith and hope, not fear or germs!
Blessings, love and peace,
Maribeth