Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. ~Colossians 3:16-17
Our world has fallen apart in the last six weeks. I don’t need to remind you of that. We thought the American way was the way to live: we work hard, maintaining a home, sending kids to school, and cooking a healthy dinner, right? Much as we hate to admit it, we still lived in a white-picket-fence world.
Suddenly nothing is certain. I personally know people who have lost jobs, contracted the virus, and live in fear of nearly everything. We don’t know what the economy will be like when this is done. What will inflation do to the cost of food and gas? I have job security right now, and I pray it stays that way. But nothing is certain right now.
Do you know the One who is certain?
Our God has not changed. Hebrews 13:8 reminds us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is our Rock.
I was listening to music tonight and the song Great is Our Lord came on. “It’s Your breath in our lungs” is the line that repeats on the chorus. We sing that so easily, never pausing to actually think about the words. This virus is attacking our lungs. God is the One who breathes breath into humanity (Genesis 2:7). It is His breath that sustains us.
God is not behind this virus, and He promises that in the end, there will be no more sickness and death. And He will wipe away all our tears (Revelation 21:4). Cry out to Him – He hears you and can handle our frustration.
We will never know the “why” behind this virus, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). We’re just called to trust and obey. This global crisis doesn’t change any of that.
So this passage from Colossians that stood out to me tonight? How do we obey that in these crazy times?
- Let the Word of Christ dwell within you — find a Bible plan. Download the Bible app. If you don’t like reading, it’ll read to you. Not your thing either? Search YouTube for scripture set to music. It’s out there – I’ve done that many times with my kids. Music helps us remember scripture.
- With all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another — there’s more to that phrase, but before completing it, how do we find wise teaching? Ask your pastor for some recommendations of good teachers to look up. With church services moving online, every church has worship services you can watch throughout the week.
- with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. — Can we sing joyfully during these times? God is still God and He is still the only One worthy of our worship. We’re to sing these songs both to each other and to God. That’s your permission, directly from the Bible, to throw yourself a dance party in your living room, praising God and singing to Him with all your might. We’re all quarantined, no one’s going to drive by and see you. Worship Him with everything in you. He breathed breath into our lungs, and we are to use that breath to praise Him.
- Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. — Whatever you do. What are you doing today? While housebound, maybe that’s as simple as opening the window. This doesn’t say that we need to be doing big things in order for our work to be for the Lord. Just, “whatever” we do. Praise God that you have dishes to wash. Praise God for the shoes that have held together longer than they should, carrying you running for miles every day. Praise God for friends, for the interconnectedness of the internet, for this happening now rather than 10-20 years ago. I don’t know how the people 100 years ago during the Spanish Flu pandemic survived without even a telephone.
Everything you do throughout the day is for the Lord. Even when life is hard.