COVID-19 Novel Encouragement Sample

God Is On the Move

Is life on pause?
You're watching a movie with some friends and one of them pauses it to use the bathroom and get more snacks. They're taking forever to return while the rest of you are left sitting around waiting, and waiting, and waiting. You don't have the remote, so you just have to wait.

Does that feel at all like life lately? You've locked yourself in your apartment and put life on pause, not knowing when the guy with the remote will hit play and let us all out.

As that paused life goes on week after week, it gets exhausting, frustrating, and depressing! But the good news is that though you feel alone and without direction, God isn't on pause. He knew of this long before it happened and has a plan to change you during this time. Just like the master sculptor's every move molds the clay into a beautiful statue, He is working every minute of every day to make you into the person He has planned for you to be.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

If this is true, then during every day of this coronavirus quarantine He's working in your heart, and He's working in the hearts of others around you and all around the world.

God is on the move. HOW is He moving and what is He leading you to change? Life will not "get back to normal." This is not about returning to how it used to be. We're all different because of this time, and now you have an opportunity to make some changes.

As the prayer said at the end of yesterday's devotional:

What will you START?
What are some things you need to start doing in your post-coronavirus life? What spiritual practices do you need to start? What life habits need to begin? What relationships need attention?

What will you STOP?
What things in your life are weighing you down and need to be thrown out with yesterday's trash?

All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. (1 Corinthians 10:23)

"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace." (2 Timothy 2:22)

What will you CONTINUE?
Your life will not be completely different. Trim off some of the bad, but keep the good! Do you sense God confirming that you should stay strong, or even get stronger, in certain areas of your life?

Take a minute to read the excerpt from Psalm 139 below out loud, letting Him remind you of how long He's been working to make you who you are today, and who He wants you to be tomorrow.

Psalm 139
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,"
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
    when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
    in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

By Elder Joshua Kruse, BICF-ZGC, Beijing