How have you fared through the isolation period with COVID-19? While I have welcomed the reopening that our province has been strategically doing I think I spent a little too much time going between my fridge and the couch waiting for our new normal!
I鈥檝e been feeling that it is time to get that diet going and when I really get serious about addressing that area of my life I begin by changing things. I get rid of the junk food in my house and look to discipline myself with a regular exercise program. I add more wholesome fruits and vegetables and also change my portion sizes. If you have ever had to lose weight you know too that there are things that must change in your life if you鈥檙e going to be successful!
I was thinking about how that can be true in our spiritual lives as well. We can know we don鈥檛 have the relationship with God that we would like or maybe wish it was better. If that is you, I鈥檝e been there too! In order to get things on track with God I realized there were things I needed to change.
Romans 10:9, 10, 13 tell us that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ... For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
That is step one but many of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ find that sometimes drifting occurs and we don鈥檛 feel as close to our Heavenly Father as we once did. Hosea 12:6 says, 鈥淭herefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, and wait for your God continually.鈥�
Maybe it is time to return to God and begin to do some of those things that in the past drew us closer to Him. Our churches are beginning to open, let鈥檚 attend! Many of our friends, families and neighbors are hurting; show them kindness (including those we interact with on social media).
Perhaps there are also things in your life that need to go as well. Our world seems to be going crazy but Ephesians 4:31 says, Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind). (Amplified Bible)
Let鈥檚 get rid of the anger and rage, quarrelling and ill will and spread the love of the Father as is written,
鈥淒ear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God鈥�. 1 John 4:7 NIV
I鈥檓 going to work on my diet but most of all I want God to do the changing in my life that I need. How about you?
