hope

As COVID-19 drags on,

and the daylight hours get shorter,
and the temperature gets colder,
and we are told to keep on keeping physical distance,
and we are to wear masks,
and we can’t eat in restaurants,
and the list of restrictions seem to increase weekly,

there are many who are beginning to feel those feelings:

anxiety
depression
loneliness
anger
fear
hopelessness

So what do we do? What can we do?

Paul writes to the church in Rome. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12

Hope.

It’s something we long for.

But our hope is not simply wishful thinking that this COVID-19 pandemic will come to an end,
that things will get back to whatever we think of as “normal“,
that a vaccine will fix everything.

Hope has a name, and His name is Jesus!

Jesus said:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light ~Matthew 11:28-30.

My prayer for all of us is that we will remind ourselves of Romans 8:37-39

For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

That we will use this time

to set our eyes forward,
to focus on what God is doing and wants to do in and through us
to proclaim hope in our words and our actions