spiritual Health Advice During Covid-19

Plagues and pestilence have occurred repeatedly during biblical and other periods in history, as recent
1918 with the Spanish flu. So, what we are experiencing is not new. However, the reality of Covid-19
reminds us of our vulnerabilities, our frailty, our insecurity regarding life and wholeness. God knows
this, and he looks at us with kindness and sympathy in the midst of our uncertainty.

Jesus reminds us not to find security in our savings plans and financial portfolio’s: “Do not lay up for
yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do
not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Mathew 6:19-20

Laying up treasures in heaven, according to Jesus, is the key to resilience during these days. This
involved first asking God to give us His perspective, to show us the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven vs.
the Kingdom of this world. To show us the deep foundation of security that He offers vs. the fleeting
and shifting security of this world system.

Keys to Spiritual Health and Resilience

1. Live your life built on God’s worldview, trusting that God’s ways are best. Jesus said “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Mathew 7:24-27

2. Understand that heaven is your true home. “In my father’s house are many rooms…I am going there to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2 In CS Lewis’s book, The Last Battle, the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, he writes this about the four children involved in Narnian adventures,
who had just died on a train crash. “And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” Do we really believe this? If not, ask God to foster within you an eternal perspective. Make this a daily prayer.

3. Go deeper in prayer and in meditation on his word than ever before. Times of trial and uncertainty have proven to be the times of greatest growth and deepening of faith in the lives of God’s children. These are times of refining, where the shallowness of our faith, the hidden motives and desires, the deep and unspoken fears come to the surface as God refines us in his holy fire. If we are honest with God, if we offer up our insecurities and fears and doubts to him in humble prayer, if we meditate on his eternal truths, and if we choose to trust in Him during seasons of pain and suffering and anxiousness, He will breath new life, stronger faith, and greater hope into our spirits and our souls. And we will emerge transformed.

4. Don’t go it alone. “We are healed in the midst of relationships.” If you’ve been at Sojourn for a few months, you have likely heard this phrase. None of us are meant to fight the battles of life in solitude. We need one another, for encouragement, to remind us of the truth, to affirm us and sharpen us as we walk down the bumpy path of life. Even if you cannot be physically close to others as much as in the past, connect with them by phone, by texts, by email, by video calls. Ask others for prayer and for help – we need one another.