COVID brought changes to many aspects of life. Many fast food restaurants went to drive through only. Families whose loved one was hospitalized could not go to see them. The patient was completely isolated, except for occasional visits from medical personnel. Some felt overwhelmed by a sense of being alone.
There is hope for the faithful Christian. Every assembly presents us with the opportunity to encourage our brethren. “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
The Father is always watchful for his prayerful saints. “He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers” (1 Peter 3:10-12a).
Christians following their Lord’s command to teach all nations, making disciples of them through baptism and instructing them in all his commandments, are promised, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). The writer to Hebrew Christians declared, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
Men abandoned Paul at his first defense. “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear” (2 Timothy 4:16-17a). Those doing the Lord’s will can know he still stands with us. No faithful child of God is ever alone.
Gary C. Hampton