Socially Bound versus Social Distancing
When we are socially bound by people, most often that’s when God is distant from us. However, during this pandemic, social distance has allowed us to think more about God and sense what our flesh is feeling even deeper. Thus, we rely on our spiritual power during spiritual warfare even more, and God becomes instant to us.
Mark 1:32-33 And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door.
The bible highlights that communication and people fellowshipping in the church is necessary. Nevertheless, we are so familiar with a church setting full of people that we have almost forgotten the importance of our solitary time with God. That leads to the sin of forgetfulness, where we often have the desire for God, the feeling of repentance, or inclination to make changes for the Lord. But Satan will tempt us with busyness to forget the dedication we have set up to conquer to make changes in our lives. Satan making people forget is the number one reason people do not get right with the Lord.
Offline versus Online Fellowship
Previously brethren might have a shy shield that stopped them from talking to each other face to face. Nonetheless, during this pandemic, the use of webinar like Zoom has become so frequent that even fellowships and meetings through this platform is now considered common. Hence, it encourages us to break away from that shy shell and to start to communicate more to our brethren and members of the church.
Spirituality versus Fleshiness
Feeling gets rid of thinking sometimes; zeal makes us forget. Overzealousness can become a sin, where zeal can be confused with hotheadedness because we are overrun by emotions, so it means we are turning something spiritual into a lust of the flesh. We need to strike a balance between feeling and thinking. We need to remember while we are in the action.
James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
In verse 34, Jesus knew the patterns of the Devil. That’s how you should be, know where your weaknesses are and protect them.
Don’t be a hearer, be a doer as well.
Get right with God not just at the hearing phase, but we need to take action, be committed to follow through our action plans to serve God, and not fall into temptation. For example, when we are back into business, busy with work, both career and church, Satan will strive to make us forget about the changes we have made with the Lord. So it is important for us to predict the pattern of the devil, to identify our weaknesses, so that we don’t lose dedication or give in to Satan’s plan of destructing our spiritual well being.
For example, our strength may be our ability to win a lot of souls to salvation but our weak point may be overzealousness or lack of wisdom, so while we are busy trying to win souls, Satan may push the button of our weakness in the middle of soul winning, then we could probably push the soul further away.
Make God the #1 Priority
In verse 35, Jesus was in a solitary place, likewise you need to get away to a solitary place and recall the benefits of what God has done for you. It is also important for us to recall the benefits of social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak, the benefits and lessons that God has taught us; recall the solitary time we had with God, then to reenact those moments we had with God, even in the future, despite all the busyness. Reenact the shelter, when the shelter ends.
Act it out, action speaks louder than words. For instance, make prayer the first thing in the morning. Bible reading is also essential and absolutely important, including studying, memorizing the verses. In addition, meditating which means reflecting on God’s words and his creation. Instead of hunting the casinos and night clubs, now we are able to enjoy and appreciate nature more.
We need to constantly remind ourselves to refresh the experience that we had in solitude with the Lord during coronavirus. Praying is a good way for us to practice that, to remind us that the changes we made during our solitude time can finally be enacted. We need to pray like Jesus did:
- “morning” – The first thing we do every day should be praying.
- “a great while before day” – Give yourself enough time in case of spiritual warfare.
- “he went out” – There are too many distractions in your room, so get away from them and get alone with God!
On the other hand, as Christians we need to keep in mind that as much as some of us may want to continue to enjoy this solitude time with God to the fullest, we cannot completely remove ourselves from this sinful wicked world. We need to urge ourselves that there are still a lot of unsaved souls that need to hear the gospel from us, and for us to minister to them.
One of the most important messages from this sermon, is that we need to serve the Lord, because of our love and fear for the Lord, not because of the people we associate ourselves with. This is because people may disappoint us, and if they do, our conscience is defiled, thus our fellowship with God should not be people dependent.