The troubles of my heart. . .
Dear Family & Friends,
While we as church leaders have adjusted services and adapted to online fellowship/livestream; our goal is to do our part to help contain the spread of coronavirus. The pandemic has also prompted us to tackle another task = communicating a message that elevates both faith and a state of mental thinking to stay positive and not panic!
Many Ministers all across our community, nation, and globe have had to be well aware of the increasing public anxiety over fears and uncertainties with coronavirus. This only reinforces the importance of believing in God while heeding to the advice of public health experts. We must keep in mind that science has always been a wonderful arena of truth. It is an amazing tool that God has given mankind that can help humans understand certain things.
We must believe that with God's help and human belief and prayer; that God will allow a cure for all of this!
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia mentions past events such as:
"2000 Y2K
2001 Anthrax
2002 West Nile virus
2003 SARS
2005 Bird Flu
2006 Ecoli
2008 Financial collapse
2009 Swine flu
2012 The Mayan Calendar predicted the world ending
2014 Ebola virus
2015 the threat of ISIS
2016 Zika virus"
and now 2020 Coronavirus (COVID-19);
Each of these events has been a factor in the mind of people leading to stressed and depressed states of mind.
But, we as Christians, must rise to the moment with God's spiritual aid and seek His practical counsel through His Word. We must do this even in spite of the ongoing political tension that stems from all of this as well and that has been ongoing for awhile now.
Psalms 25:17 is a Psalm of distress. It speaks to the mind that is troubled.
"the troubles of my heart are multiplied; bring me out of my distresses."
Adding to this distress, is this concept and need for social distancing; which has taken us away from valuable in-person interaction and fellowship with one another. Social distancing has been recommended as a best practice to slow down the spread of the coronavirus illness.
Rod J.K. Wilson stated, "All of us humans have three components to our psychological system: thinking/cognitive, feeling/amotive, and willing/volition. It is important to understand that the depressed person's problems reside in all three areas bevcause of feelings and faulty thinking (Baker, 2006).
Motivation and energy are a struggle, so it is hard when we are depressed about an escalating situation like COVID-19; to willingly choose to engage in the right frame of mind.
We have to fight and push through and believe and remember; GOD WILL BRING US THROUGH!
We must:
1) Carry out our life daily to the purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ.
2) Invest our time each day meditating on God's Word and applying it to your life.
Depression and discouragement can build unhealthy habits into a person's thought life. These habits need to be broken by God. Investing in the Word, can help a person gauge and monitor their thought life, build self-control, turn to God, and pursue Him!
3) Do away with grudges daily.
Ephesians 4:26 states - do away with grudges daily.
Dealing with anger is vitally important to emotional health and happiness.
Lastly, 4) Make the most of time every single day to grow closer to your mate and your children!
Make it right! Parents, siblings, close relatives -- make it right; make amends!
Heal broken relationships the best way possible and leave the rest up to God!
We continue to fervently pray with great hope and expectation that God will see us through this very unique ordeal.
Amen!