These tough times require spiritual investment prayer, fellowship and meditation
Covid-19 has affected many people and the vulnerabilities tend to impact on our well-being as we press to “enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it,” (Matt 7:1314). We will pursue the narrow gate and enter it by the grace of God for there we find our lasting peace.
God knows that mankind by nature is predisposed to tendencies of becoming anxious hence we are admonished to be anxious for nothing but with prayer and supplication to make our petitions known to God (Philippians 4:6). Anxiety is a common spirit that is associated with depression especially when facing uncertainties and is often accompanied by fear that can escalate to trauma. By association with others, we suffer vicarious trauma which is all about suffering with the other by virtue of connecting with their suffering.
Confronting our comforting and disconcerting zones may throw us into defence mechanisms such as denial.
Denial means we refuse to accept the situation and find comfort in not aligning with the reality and although this may temporarily protect us, it certainly cannot last and will in the long run become detrimental to our coping resources. We draw from spiritual investment such as prayer, fellowship, meditation in the word of God, Holy Communion, seeking and searching for the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit but this takes first meeting with Jesus to encounter the mystery of salvation.
Seeing and understanding many things that God wants to expose to us sometimes require spiritual spectacles and this would serve as a protective cover in the spirit realm. Jesus is introduced to Nicodemus, a high ranking official of the time to mark a mystery in spiritual rebirthing. For unknown reasons, this man comes to Jesus at night as he advances questions and coming at night could possibly be due to worry, anxiety and fear of attracting judgment and condemnation as he was non-conforming (John 3:1-8).
Many of us are in a space or position that is physically, socio-culturally, economically, psychologically and spiritually squeezed hence we feel and think we need to come to Jesus except in the ‘night’. What is it about the night? In the ‘night’, we do not want to be seen, recognised or associated with the Saviour because we fear the comments that people will make of us. In these end times, we need to come to the Lord and Saviour with fervent hearts as we seek and desire His light for transformational change. It is time we enter the unconventional conversation by unsettling the depth of our comfort zones.
Nicodemus makes a decision to enter spiritual investment concerning his spiritual rebirthing and reawakening for he learns that unless a man is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. This is a hard and foolish teaching that we also have to contend with for naturally it does not make sense. But as God opens the eyes of our understanding we learn that what is “born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” for that is what brings about spiritual consciousness (John 3:3-7) as we take the new creation nature with the DNA of Jesus.
As we traverse this path, we are also aware that there are several sources for spiritual reengineering hence the many deities but Jesus decreed that He is ‘the way, the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me’ (John 14:6). It happens in our innermost being and it compels an elevated shifting as we deepen our knowing that we should not “store up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where our treasure is, there our heart will also be, (Matt 6:19-21) and we will continue to enjoy the lasting spiritual verities in Christ Jesus.