Aren’t you tired of living the same day over and over again? This lockdown has driven many of us apart from God. I am one of those who felt that my relationship with God has been kind of distant in these recent times. I admit it is tough to live the faith in these trying times. I have tried many things to continue igniting the little spark of faith that is in me. Although the church is closed physically during this pandemic, it is no doubt that we can still attend various events through many different available platforms.
As Isaiah 41:10 says, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you, I will hold you up with My victorious right hand.”
I felt scared and lost when the lockdown first began. So, I turned to other things such as video games and social media as a distraction from reality. I did not want to be reminded of what we were going through. During this time, not only did I distance myself from God, but also from my own family! (Who would even want to distance themselves from their own family, am I right?) I isolated myself in my room and only went out to have my meals and then went straight back to my room. It was like I fell into this deep, dark hole and not being able to get out of it. And in that darkness, I found refuge that made me wonder, why is this happening to me?
However, things started to take a turn this year. Guilt was flowing through my veins because of the inconsistency I showed in living my faith as properly as I should. I asked myself, is God calling me back to Him or am I just making this up? Later on, I realised that I am actually being called by God. I started by slowly praying to God when I woke up every morning. I thanked Him for granting me to live another day of my life. I know this action may seem small, but at least, I am one step closer to God than I was before. I started to feel the spark of faith in me light up little by little. Nonetheless, I was proud of myself for taking this small step.
A couple of months later, I realised that my relationship with God is closer than ever before. I started joining youth meetings, youth hangouts, and not to mention online masses as well. Sadly, the feeling of attending online masses is definitely not the same as attending physical masses in church. Every once in a while, I would listen to worship songs and calm myself down. The process is hard but, it gets easy as time goes by. The support and encouragement that I received from the people around me are overwhelming. They helped me in ways that I myself cannot imagine. They brought me back to who I was before.
As of now, I am happy to be able to live up to this day as it is a blessing. Blessings come in many ways, and my relationship with God today is the biggest blessing I have ever received. God is there through my ups and downs. He is there every minute of the day. I started seeing the beauty in life, in the most mundane things I’ve never noticed before. One of my favourite bible verses is from Isaiah 43:2, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.” This bible verse has helped me a lot and I hope that it helps you too.
At this very moment, I am proud to say that during this period of total lockdown, I have allocated quite an amount of time to talk to God daily. During this time, I tell Him about the unending endeavor I am going through. Not only do I get to let it out, but it also helps my emotions mentally. I believe that this pandemic has taken a toll on our spiritual life and mental health. Since we are given 24 hours a day, why not spend at least one minute of the time given to us for The One who gave it to us?
We should also know our Scriptures. Therefore, in my opinion, we should take this time of MCO to read up and reflect on the Bible as it is the key to learning and knowing about who our God and faith are all about. My suggestion for all the readers will be to choose a book from the Bible that you like and read at least one verse from it, and if possible reflect and meditate on that verse so that you will understand the true meaning of that particular verse. Through that, you will find that all the books are connected and all the events that happened or were foretold in the Old Testament happened in the New Testament.
With all things taken into consideration, I firmly believe that although this time of MCO is an extremely trying time for all of us, in a way, it is also a blessing for those of us who don’t usually spend much time with God as this is the perfect time for us to do so. As the famous saying goes, “better late than never.” I for one think that during this time of pandemic God wants us to repent and turn to Him from our sinful, immoral ways and believe in Him that all things will be alright at the end of the day if you put your trust in Him.
I would like to conclude this with a bible verse from Proverbs 3:5-6 that says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
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