Prayer

Good Day to you as I do hope this day finds you well and that you and your family are well physically and mentally. I have read where many people are getting “cabin fever” by being restricted from doing many activities that they use to do.

I have read that people have more time on their hands with little to keep them occupied and that the divorce rate between couples due to spending more time with each other may have risen.

This reminds of an episode on the Andy Griffith Show where a traveling executive has a car breakdown and is stuck at Andy’s house for that Sunday. You see Andy, Barney and the family singing songs, playing checkers, rocking on the porch, talking while the executive awaits his car being fixed. Then Gomer says the car can’t be fixed on Sunday and will have to wait for the part to arrive on Monday. The executive is a “time bomb” waiting to go off and does when Barney tells Andy a couple of times for them to take a ride and go for a cold soda pop at the gas station and then over to Thelma Lou’s later to enjoy a bit of television.

As time passes, Andy starts playing a church hymn on his guitar and one by one the whole family chimes in including the traveling executive and peace is restored, time is slowed and that destination, well, it’s not that important as he sings “and I think it was The Old Rugged Cross”.

I am a big fan of the Andy Griffith Show for with all the laughter, comedy and chemistry with each member, there was always an underlying message that taught us “the good and simple life” even in times of distress and trouble.

In today’s society it is just the opposite, we must be entertained, on the go and busy until we go to sleep. Spare time, what is that? Whatever happened to rocking in the chair on the porch? Taking a walk, doing a puzzle, or playing a game with the family?

Here’s another question: Where is your Bible? Is in a corner gathering dust? Since church is out, do you use your Bible and follow along with the pastor? With this spare time, have you opened it and read it, or do you make excuses to do other things? Do you read it to your children?

Let’s touch on prayer for a moment—Do you pray or are you just too busy? Do you have any spare time in the morning as you rise? How about at night before you retire? Do you have any spare time for God? He has never left and would love to here from you, his door is always open every minute of every day.

I pulled the following article out of my archives for your review:

‘Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask for your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but this is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed the unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from our sin and set us free. Amen!

With the Lord’s help may this prayer, Billy Graham’s Prayer For Our Nation, sweep our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we once again can be called ‘One Nation Under God!’

Fellow Christian, we have entered in the ‘new normal’ with ‘social distancing’, stay at home, safety cities, businesses disappearing on a daily basis, sporting events closed, restaurants closed, limited access to retail businesses, and the list goes on due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This pandemic has affected not just one country but countries throughout the world as well as age—the effects are not just upon the elderly, but people of all ages, both sexes and all races. And why, are we coming to the end of an age? Jesus said in Matthew 24 that the earth will experience plagues as well as wars and earthquakes for these are the beginning of birth pains or sorrows.

The pandemic is here and appears that it will not be going away in the near future, so what is the solution? I don’t have a solution, but I do offer the following for you to read, believe and know that God promises his help whenever we face danger. Turn with me to Psalms 91 (NIV) and read the following:

Do you have any spare time for God? He has never left and would love to here from you, his door is always open every minute of every day.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely, he will save you from the fowlers snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be shield and your rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

“Because he loves me, “says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.

God said, I believe it and that settles it—His promise to each of us in time of danger and trouble.

May God Bless you and May You Bless God Continually!

Jeff