During our years of service in the Muslim world, my husband and I focused a great deal on discipleship. At the time, there was very little in the way of material written for new believers specifically coming to Christ out of Islam. With the Lord’s leading and my husband’s encouragement, I wrote a course called, “Created for Relationship.” A dear Tunisian believer translated it into Arabic for me, and I was able to use it and share it with others over the years.
As our world is turned upside down in the year 2020 over this COVID-19 pandemic, I think back to that study and the concepts that led me to write it.
Isolation is hard. We are made for relationship.
Prior to the Fall, God walked in the garden with man. There was an intimacy of communion and fellowship. With sin, all that changed. Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, and relationship was broken.
However, God never stopped reaching out to man to restore that perfect fellowship, and it was for this reason that Christ came — to save man from sin and restore his relationship to the Creator. For those of us who have known that restoration, we are now called to be his ambassadors of that great message to a broken world.
As many of us are spending time with ourselves, it’s a good time to reflect on the privilege we have of never being alone. In Christ, we are in relationship with God — whether in a house alone, a prison cell, a desert place or a nursing home.
We are never in isolation in Christ. We are always in relationship, and will be so for eternity.
Unfortunately, millions do not know that place of peace and fellowship. Our job is not done, especially now.
Ask God who needs to hear that good news from you today. Will it be through a phone call, a Facebook message, a video or simple act of kindness? In all we do and say in these troubling days, are we reflecting the peace that comes in fellowship with the Father? Are we offering that same peace to others by sharing the good news with them?
We were created for relationship. Thank God for the relationship we have in Christ and be his hands, voice and feet to others — to His glory.
Grace and Peace