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This is a really strange thing that we are experiencing right now with all of us having to distance ourselves from one another and others having to “self-quarantine” such as myself.

We came back from Panama and I went home and I haven’t been out of the house but once since then (except for in my yard.) (It has been different but not all bad. Actually in a lot ways it has been good because God has really been working on my heart and perspective during this time. (I believe He is doing the same for many, many others.)

I have really been trying to see what God is doing in all of this and what He might be trying to teach me. I hope you have been doing the same.

ONE OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE THINGS TO SEE IN ALL OF THIS IS THE EVIDENCE OF WHAT GOD IS DOING. NOT NECESSARILY THAT GOD CAUSED IT, THAT I DO NOT KNOW, BUT THAT GOD IS USING IT TO DO GREAT THINGS IN THE HEART OF HIS PEOPLE AND OTHERS.

God has really been building my relationship with Him; reminding me that nothing is more important than this. Another huge lesson that He has also helped me to be reminded of is that under Him, my wife and children are most important and cannot be neglected. THE THING THAT I HAVE LOVED ABOUT BEING QUARANTINED IS BEING WITH MY FAMILY CONSTANTLY (which caused them to be quarantined as well).

I have thought about one of the lesser emphasized things that God did through John the baptist according to Luke 1:17 that is prophesied about him in Malachi 4:6 is that He would turn the hearts of the parents back to their children. This is something that is important to God that needs to happen in our time as well. (I wonder if God is using this to wake us up to the blessing and responsibility that it is our to love our spouses and teach our little ones.)

Challenge: Hopefully if we have not been taking the time to make your marriages what God desires and love our children enough this has shown you, and things will be different from this time forward.

Hopefully you have also found a greater peace through Christ during this time. I have been reminded how important it is to rest and not let busyness get in the way of peace in Christ. How much we sabotage the peace that Christ offers by never pausing to see recognize His blessing and work in our lives.

When our world is shaken we are pushed to remember that God is in control and everything does not depend on our efforts but His sovereignty.

It’s awesome how God can take difficult and even devastating situations and bring great things out of them.

Something else that I hope we gain from this that I want to highlight in our lesson today is: that our hope really needs to be, not on the perfect situation, things in our lives just the way we want them, or even having perfect physical safety, but on God and His ability to take care of us and what he has in store for us no matter what happens in this world.

Last week Wesley started our three part series based on the truth of 1 Corinthians 13:13 that these three things remain “Faith, hope and love.” This is a really important truth considering what we are experiencing right now. For the time being a lot of things have changed and some things have been taken away but through Christ there are things that will always remain as faith, hope and love do…These are things that we need to have right now and always and they also anchor us during difficult times.