I Fell For It….Again!

What an interesting week this has been…not to mention a challenging one. After staying home, and all services and groups at church being cancelled because of the coronavirus, our discipleship staff began providing podcasts and information on how to get our life groups on line digitally.

I decided to use Google Hangouts for my group since I was most familiar with leading meetings using that platform. But after getting my group familiar with that, I discovered it has a limit of 10 participants. Our life group normally has 20-25 attendees on campus weekly. Sooooo…Hangouts won’t work!

So, on to plan B! What about Zoom? I’ve used it before for meetings, but have not been the meeting planner. Can’t be too hard, can it? So, here comes our test meeting the day before Sunday’s 10 am meeting time. It was a bit dicey and now I dreaded having to meet this way.

During the night I woke up several times fearing the outcome of our Zoom call in a few hours. That’s when all of a sudden, it dawned on me what was up. My fear was unwarranted, but still real, since I was thinking, as a group leader, it was up to me to make this work!

As I lay in the dark thinking about it, I remembered, it’s not up to me, but to God. I was letting fear and the enemy rob me of the joy of getting to still meet with these women. That’s when I prayed for God to take over, do what He wanted with our time on line, and to be glorified with what would take place. This was a way to use the Internet for His good, and the enemy didn’t like that!

Now, in the scheme of what is happening to many regarding this virus, this is SOOOOOO minor. But it was a huge reminder to me of how the devil wants us to hunker down, isolate, and give up…definitely not stay connected through the Internet to bring God glory!

A few years ago, one of my daughters (who is also a guest blogger for me from time to time) drew this image of what wearing the armor of God looks like.

I thought of this as I prayed Saturday night. We have all we need to walk in faith, not fear and worry, whether it’s just a group meeting or being exposed to this highly contagious virus…and everything in between: empty store shelves, running low on toilet paper, a week of loneliness and wondering how much longer it will last?

God is faithful. Study Ephesians 6 if you are walking in fear right now. That fear is from the enemy, while peace is from a loving Father.

Jesus promises His gift of peace in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.”

Let’s don’t allow the enemy to stop our desire to stay connected and share Christ with our life groups, as well as with those who need Christ in this difficult season of Coronavirus. Let’s do just the opposite of what our foe desires and lift Christ high. Let’s pray for hearts who have never softened to the Lord and His gift of salvation, to be open and to respond…perhaps because they see how we are walking through this pandemic experience.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment. 2 Timothy 1:7

Banner photo by Photo by Bruce Christianson on Unsplash