Inseparable: The Shepherd’s Song (In Fast and Feasting)

Take a moment to meditate on these words of Christ in Matthew 6:25-34, when He said,

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

God knows us. He knows we are prone to worry and fear. By definition, fear is a thought-form where you project yourself into some imagined future moment. Fear takes you out of the present moment. And when you set your sights on what “could happen,” your mind becomes a playground for anxiety. When you return to the present moment and rest your mind on the promises that God has given us, fear dissipates.

Many of you may be going through real trials right now, but how many of us are simply taking our eyes off of Christ in this present moment and worried about something that hasn’t even happened yet? And what if something does happen? What if our finances become an issue? What if our health becomes an issue? Now is the time to continuously go back to each and every promise Jesus gave to us.

The final verse of Matthew says, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We are not alone, and we will never be alone. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– Romans 8:38-39

It’s safe to say our foundation is clearly being tested now.
Consider these words of Jesus when He said,

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
– Matthew 7:24-27

What does it mean to dig deep and find that rock, which is our foundation? This rock (our God) transcends our thinking mind. It is a deep knowing. For anyone who has had even a moment of being in the presence of God and being overwhelmed by His grace and mercy, you know that there are no words for this. It goes beyond our minds into our spirit. The mind is fickle, like our emotions. There is a deep knowing where the Holy Spirit communicates God’s love to us.

Adversity is a wonderful opportunity because adversity forces you to go deeper. In these times, life becomes unbearable if you are living on the surface, or a shallow foundation. It forces you to wake up to what God has been trying to show you all along. We rarely feel the need to “go deep” when we are in our comfort zone. We don’t want to be bothered when everything is sunny. But this is an invitation to either find or go deeper and come to KNOW that Rock, which is our foundation.

This is something that looks and feels like an obstacle from a conventional point of view. But true to form, there is a paradox here where this is a great opportunity for God to heal much more than merely the physical. So while we pray for mercy and God’s supernatural healing over all those who are suffering (both physically, financially, and emotionally), we should also pray that God will use this as a time of deep healing. May that healing go deeper than the physical and surface level. May the body of Christ become healthier than ever through this time.

Go be with Him. Taste and see that the Lord is, and always will be, good. Go to Him, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and He will give you rest. Behold, He is with us always, now and forever.
Grace and peace be with you all. I can’t wait to be with you in person soon.

-Paul

“When our flesh weeps for what it has lost, our spirit rejoices for what it has found.”