“Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.” (Galatians 6:10 NLT)
My church’s mission team has been meeting weekly via Zoom since the shelter-at-home order began. We’ve been looking for opportunities to serve others, but this is a particularly hard time to serve the outside world. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time for that, and we should strive to find those opportunities. But our team decided to turn our focus inside the church for the time being.
We decided to think about our church members’ spiritual needs. Let’s look at the sheep. Let’s teach people how to pray. How to study the bible. How to dig deeper and allow God to speak through His word. Let’s reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s ask questions that take the conversation farther than “How are you?” and “Fine.” We decided to ask God to give us these opportunities.
Then Galatians 6:10 showed up in my personal devotion time. It was like God was shining a light on our choice, and giving me such confirmation that we are pursuing the right thing. Coronavirus has put us in a unique position to look at our lives and our relationship with God in such a way that pushes us to evaluate our foundations: prayer, Bible reading, and discipleship. Especially in the family of faith, we sometimes overlook discipleship.
It can be so easy to get caught up in the next ministry, event, or service that we miss the chance to deepen our relationship with Christ. Let us use this gift of time to seek him out. Ask God to reveal himself to you while you wait, then allow his word to speak to you. I bet he will if you do.
Carmen Halsey is an IBSA director of leadership development.