The COVID-19 crisis is now impinging more and more on our daily lives, and life is becoming very unfamiliar to us. In a very free society, strange new “fences” are being put around us, and we are being forced to stay, or go, where and when we would not choose to. All of this, with fears of the unknown, is making us feel stresses we have not felt before, and anxiety levels grow.
Firstly, stress and anxiety are natural, normal and healthy responses; they make us pay attention to real problems, and respond in a timely way to deal with them. So, at a time like the moment, we should feel stress and anxiety – something would be wrong if we didn’t!
Above all the love of God in Christ is holding and keeping us in whatever our situa- tion. He will never let us go, and He promises to carry us through it (Ro 8:31-38). This means that, if we have faith in Christ, we can relax (have peace) in the middle of our stress and anxiety (Jn 16:33). This, the most powerful resource in the world will carry us through all things, and enable us to think and act clearly and effectively, with hope – I know, being a chronic anxious depressive!
It is the love of God in Christ that also empowers us to love one another. One of our Men’s Breakfasters this week said that among the most needful things at the moment is that we look after one another! This is particularly powerful when we see so much of “everyone for him/herself”.
Peace (in the midst of stress!) in Christ, Jonathan