Desk of Dennis Piller
During our prayer team huddle prior to service I felt a real sense of discouragement, anxiety and despair. I saw hundreds and thousands of believers who have lost an anchor in their souls by not being able to gather for worship. I saw so many busy with 100 to-do things that permeate our days and our Sundays. The family custom that we all go to church together is gone for now. I realized it is also a comfort gathering together with the believer’s, friends and family.
It encourages us…lifts us and empowers us to stand for another week. But I sensed that without this Sunday gathering, too many have lost their spiritual rudders. Not just for themselves but those they influence or lead in their inner circle. (We are all leaders! Each of us is an influencer to a group of people). Often, we don’t see ourselves that way but during these Covid times, too many have lost that fine thread of spiritual connection and fellowship. Too many have lost this spiritual connection thread with others that was more critical than we were consciously aware.
The question I want to consider is this: How important is Scripture’s teaching on relationship and closeness? If it’s merely acknowledged it ends up on the shelves with little impact on our lives. The role that identifies that in scripture is our ordained role as priests. We are complete when we enjoy His fellowship and grow closer to God. It is actually part of our DNA… how God made us. Its why we feel empty or not fulfilled and so many search a lifetime trying to fill that emptiness with world endeavors and it will always fall short.
The priestly work in Eden was to “work” and “keep” the garden Genesis 2:15 and the Levites were to “guard” and “keep” the tabernacle Numbers 1:53; 3:36). At the very beginning, our purpose was clear. We were created to be like our Lord, to be close to him, to live with him, in his house, and to participate in his abundant life. His presence and life coexist.
This Covid virus has unearthed not just the symptom of aloneness or a sort of wandering emptiness spiritually but the underlying cause… a lack of a deeper relationship with God. Sometimes we know we are hanging on by a thread but other times we just get comfortable and don’t see a lack of real depth in our walk with God. That depth is called relationship. It is like the seed that fell among thorns, its the man who hears the word, but the worries and deceitfulness of the world and wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. Matt 13:7 We are all on a road traveling somewhere and sometimes we do lose our way like a sheep with its head down and eats themselves into another pasture. We are all susceptible to losing that critical connection that may have been hanging by a thread or two. Maybe it was not as solid as we once thought.
If you are seeing this light today. Embrace the truth of it. Maybe it’s a 10% loss or a 50% or an 80% truth. However big your piece of thread is. Stop and examine the depth of your relationship. How are you nurturing your children, young or grown, through this treacherous path of no mans land of isolation. Embrace the light. Ask Him to forgive your wandering and engage the cross. Face whatever stands in opposition. Anxiety, loneliness and lonesomeness are symptoms. God’s word is your power and the rock on which we are called to stand! Your reaching out in relationship… for intimacy, will awaken the slumbering spirit within you. The Holy Spirit is calling each of us to deeper waters. (to some that is revealing they have been on the shore). Relationship has never required a building. He is speaking! STOP! BE STILL. He will meet you where you are. Right Now. It is not your strength but His…through you. What you are feeling at this moment is that the Holy Spirit is pursuing you… relentlessly. He will not give up on you!
If this word touches you… then pass it on. Pay it forward. Be an encourager to 1 or 2 around you. Have a prayer huddle. Expose what is happening. Be that influencer that throws out the light of the gospel to someone who may be drowning but is not saying a word. God’s Grace holds you now.
Waymaker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsypFJ5mNw0