There’s a viral pandemic in progress as this first meditation is being written. By now, it’s just about all that’s on anyone’s mind. There is real danger out there.
But with the widespread danger to our health, there lurks another danger that is more significant and is of greater consequence – that we would forget God. Those of us who profess to know God are not exempt from this danger.
You see, forgetting God is not primarily a matter of forgetting that God exists. It’s not primarily a matter of forgetting prayer. It’s not primarily a matter of forgetting our Bible on the shelf. It’s not primarily forgetting about our church family.
At it’s root, forgetting God is a matter of not regarding God as God in each of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. We forget that it is God who made this world and us in it. We forget that each of us is born in a state of self-centered rebellion against God. We forget that all mankind is under the holy and just wrath of God. We forget that God has entered His creation in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, to take the wrath for those He is redeeming. We forget that Christ is preparing a place for His own in the presence of God and away from the corruption and suffering of this fallen world. We forget that what we do with these things right now matters for eternity.
It is with this greatest of all dangers in mind that we must set our minds on God. Yes, we must think about many things that pertain to this world as long as we are in it. But without God being the foundation of our thinking, we cannot think about anything rightly.
So, as we progress through this pandemic that is just beginning to ramp up in the U.S., my desire for us is that we would think first about God – remember Him, meditate on Him – and, in light of who He is for us in Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, move into the things He has given us to do in the days He gives us.
As God provides the opportunity, we’ll consider various passages of Scripture and thoughts of other men who have faithfully pointed us to God in all of life’s circumstances. I encourage you to follow along together as you are able and encourage one another with your thoughts as another way in which we may grow together even as we are separated physically for a time.
May God be praised for His love and grace!