Midweek Meeting April 1 2020

We met via Zoom once again. We were a good number and I gave a full message from Proverbs, from Proverbs 24:10. Towards the end I said

1. How are you doing? Have you found yourself feeling weak at this time of crisis?

How have you been doing? Perhaps you are embarrassed by the question. Yes, you know that as a Christian you should be strong and standing firm but it has all rather knocked you back. Well. don't be surprised. That is what is to be expected. People do falter in times of trouble. They may do very well when the waters are calm but come the storm, like the disciples, they begin to panic. We shouldn't worry or panic but if we have been doing that then it reminds us of how weak we really are and, as Paul says, when I am weak then I am strong. Those feelings of weakness are reminders that we need to rely on the Lord.

2. What do you see around you? Are people faltering in this time of trouble?

I don't know about you but I have seen more people in tears on the TV screens and more people crying phoning into radio stations than I have for a long time. Some people have really been hit for six by this. I am thinking of people in government and in the caring professions who are overwhelmed, people whose schemes are in tatters because of the changes, people stuck the other side of the word, people in quarantine on their own, parents trying to do their work from home and dealing with their children home from school, quite apart from those worried that they have the virus or might catch it or whose relatives have gone down with it.

Yes, plenty of people are faltering. It is not unusual. If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!

3. How are you doing? Now is the time to be strong, now in this time of crisis.

The other thing that is right to say from this proverb is that if we take the right attitude we can be strong even in this crisis. The house is still being built, the rooms are still being filled. Now, perhaps it is more difficult to build as we ought to, to find those rare treasures that will suit best. But is we look to the Lord we will go on, we will stand firm. Many have remarked on how it is like being ina war this coronavirus crisis. Well at such times Surely you need guidance .. and victory is won through many advisers. So let's got to God's Word - to psalms like Psalm 46 and 91 and 23, let's go to the Sermon on the Mount and Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 13 and every place else we can find help. Let's strengthen each other with Scriptures and with other encouragements by means of word and deed. if we look to the Lord there is no reason why we cannot come through this.

I then went to the end of Isaiah 40 and Hebrews 12:1-3 an closed with a nice Spurgeon illustration.