We’re living in masks, hiding, covering up, protecting ourselves and others from an unseen virus. Emotions are running high. But what infects us from day one? Our inborn sin pervades everything (Rom. 5:12). No wonder our fallen world is infected with a pandemic and chaos.
We wear masks with each other, but we can’t hide from God. He knows every thought, word, and deed (Ps. 139). He tells us that if we don’t meet His holy requirements as outlined in Scripture, we can’t be with Him in eternity.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23 ESV).
Manmade solutions won’t fix our deepest problem in this pandemic. What can we do in this messed up, anxious, fallen world?
Truth is…we desperately need God!
- The One who is holy (I Sam. 2:2) and just (Deut. 32:4);
- The One who is wise, sovereign, ruling, powerful, reigning and bringing all things toward the day when His kingdom plans are complete (Is. 46:10; Heb. 1:1-14; Rev. 21:1-5);
- The One who is perfect (Mt. 5:48) and good (Ps. 145:9);
- The One who is loving (John 3:16), merciful and faithful (Eph. 2:1-10).
The Free Gift of Good News! Let’s Sing the Gospel!
God gave us the solution to our impossible problem! Let’s start a praise interruption!
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed trinity!
(“Holy! Holy! Holy!,” Heber, R., 1826)
Even when we were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us [spiritually] alive together with Christ (for by His grace—His undeserved favor and mercy—you have been saved from God’s judgment (Eph. 2:5 AMP).
As believers who have repented and trusted in Jesus, He’s taken all the punishment we deserve and given us all His perfect righteousness (Gal. 3:13; Rom. 3:26, 4:5, 5:17; 2 Cor. 5:21; I Peter 3:18).
Now, God sees you as He sees Jesus!
You are redeemed, cleansed, free, adopted into His family as a beloved child (Eph. 5:1), and able to rest in what He’s done for you.
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart (Eph. 4:18 ESV).
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4-7 ESV).
Promises in the gospel for us to sing!
What great comfort and peace. No matter what’s hard in our life, we as believers know we forever belong to Jesus and He is with us through all of it!
- He is dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit (John 15:4; 2 Cor. 1:19-22; Gal. 2:20);
- He’s bringing forth fruit in our lives (John 15:1-5; Gal 5:22);
- He will never leave us (Heb. 13:5);
- We have a new life (I John 5:12) and are alive with Christ (Rom. 6:4-5, 10; Col. 2:13);
- He promises nothing can ever separate us from His love (Rom. 8);
- We are never going to be condemned (Rom 8:1);
- He shows us when we need to believe in who He says He is, even if we don’t understand what He’s doing (John 20:31);
- He shapes us in His perfectly loving and good ways (Rom. 8:28); especially through times of suffering (I Pet. 4:12);
- By His grace, we keep turning to our loving Father as children who need His tender care, repenting and trusting Him (Prov. 3:5-6).
Reframing masks into gospel-centered praise
Wouldn’t it be great to put on a mask and reframe its fear-filled message into gospel-centered praise as we sing the gospel to ourselves? And then to others?
“Holy Lord, I don’t need to hide from You. You love and accept me because of Jesus my Savior. You are transforming me through all my challenges, even in this pandemic suffering, and I praise and trust You for what You are doing through it all, in Your perfect love for me and Your children. Help me to live a life of gospel-centered praise, through Jesus and Jesus alone, amen.”
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Sing the gospel to myself
It’s emotionally hard to praise when pandemic challenges are so hard, isn’t it? So, I’m finding I need to sing the gospel to myself, sing the good news of the cross, into every hard situation. Every single day.
I need Him to strengthen me (Rom. 16:25) by singing of the glory and gift of Jesus to live a gospel-centered life of praise. I’ll sing along with you, dear friend in Christ.
This week, my gift to you is a YouTube playlist filled with the gospel of Jesus Christ (with lyrics so you can experience singing along!) that I pray will become something God uses powerfully. I’m praying He uses it to infuse your heart, mind, and soul with all His beauty and wonder of the gospel. Dear friend in Christ, let’s sing the gospel to ourselves this week and rejoice! Sign up here and it will come to your email!
2 Comments
Laura Bartnick · August 19, 2020 at 2:12 pm
Thank you for your posts!
Lauri Hogle · August 30, 2020 at 3:24 pm
I’m so thankful they are encouraging you! Our God is so good!
Comments are closed.