Special Message From Melissa
I have to share this message with my Christian friends. I don’t want to share it and I have told God that, but the call to do so is too strong. I am not perfect and that is why I don’t want to write what I’m about to. I make mistakes, I mess up, and I fail God over and over. But I heard him tell me to “sound the alarm” and so here goes…
When this Covid-19 pandemic hit our world, it was the churches chance to shine. It was their chance to be a light into the dark world. (Matthew 5:14-16). We were about to face fear like we hadn’t for years. We were about to see people who needed help in ways they hadn’t just a few weeks prior.
At first the social media feeds were full of hope and about Christ. Churches were live-streaming and people were sharing the hope of Christ and it was going great….. then it turned. Christian people became wrapped up in the next conspiracy theory, the next political figure, the politics behind the virus, and whether each other stood as red or blue. I began to notice the light of Christ beginning to fade.
Now a few weeks later when I open my social media feed I am bombarded with Christian people who are saying rude things to each other and rude things about our Government. I will be the first to say, as Christians we take a stand and we vote, and we write letters and call our governing officers to voice our concerns and interests. But when our voice turns to anger and outbursts of hate towards others, it has gone too far. We forget that we are to honor those in authority. It is a Biblical command to honor them (Romans 13:1-2). We can disagree with them, and still show honor. We have many examples of this in the Bible. David continued to show honor to King Saul despite Saul trying to kill him. King Saul may not have been worthy of the honor, but David chose to honor the office that King Saul was in. Our leaders are not immune to mistakes or sin. They are human and humans will fail. They have still been placed there by God, until God removes them in His own time. David is the perfect example of continuing to honor the office, even when you do not agree with or maybe even care for the official in that office.
When a Christian choses to show honor, God will honor them because they are honoring others. Guess what happens next? - their prayers are more effective (James 5:16). What happened to David? – God removed King Saul and David was the next King of Israel!!
“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each others that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” James 5:16
During the Covid-19 shutdown, we may not all agree on the way certain businesses have been deemed non essential, houses of worship closed, and people are struggling financially and it seems unnecessary and unconstitutional at times, but I want to challenge the church to PRAY. Pray like you never have before. Get alone with God and pray for this nation. Pray for your leaders. Pray for an end to the virus. Pray for love to grow and division to end. We will not be blessed for rebellion. We will not be blessed for arguing/hate-filled words. We will not be blessed for disobeying authority…. We will only be blessed when as a church we stand in the gap for our nation, PRAYING and LOVING OTHERS like never before.