We all hid from different aspects of 2020. The virus. Death. Riots. Violence. Fraud. The list seems to go on and on.
As I meditated on my first blog post, a few things came to my about this year, and one of them was my hiding place. How did I truly deal with 2020?
My hiding place was the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 18:10 became a greater reality than I had ever experienced before:
"The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."
I still remember the date my school went virtual--March 12, 2020. Life changed overnight. I was no longer driving to work. I was working at home. Our school district said they'd reevaluate coming back to school in person in April 2020, and I was sure we'd get right back. But we didn't.
Uncertainty was everywhere. I was nervous, like everyone. And then came the Sunday morning afterwards, when I felt I had to preach on the coronavirus. I mean, it was on everyone's minds. I woke up that Sunday morning in my usual routine of prayer and Bible reading. At some point that morning, Jesus' words in Matthew 24:7-8 dropped into my soul. Messiah said:
"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."
There it was! Jesus' prophecy about the coronavirus! The coronavirus was a pestilence. But it wasn't the end of the world, it was the beginning or sorrows, for judgment is coming upon this world for her many, many sins. My heart was comforted, to say the least, as I was hearing doom and gloom on all sides. That was the moment I ran into my Hiding Place, the Word of God. I had His understanding, His peace. I was so happy to have a divine Place to rest.
Since then, I've lived in God's peace. I even had coronavirus in October 2020, but God swiftly healed me, and I'm fully recovered. But I'm staying in my Hiding Place. It's truly the GREATEST blessing of 2020, to have a Place of rest.
~Pastor Jesse Smith
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