A Thought to Ponder…No matter the hour, it is time to pray
Published 5:59 pm Friday, April 17, 2020
BY REV. RAYMOND AMOS, SR.
I knew a man who wouldn’t say the word goodbye. That was years ago and now he lives in the land of salutation where never a goodbye is spoken. The reason that he refused that word was his childhood memories of the influenza pandemic of 1918. He told me that he said it too many times back then.
We do the best we can to overcome “the arrow that flies by day, and the pestilence that stalks in the darkness.” (Psalm 91:5) We are thankful that God has given us science and medical experts; and we are thankful for faith.
We all have a lot to give an answer for someday, and how we have kept the faith during the coronavirus is among them. The greater challenge may even be how we keep the faith when all of this is past.
We have been given a glimpse of two worlds during the pandemic. The world in trouble has been a kinder world. Faith has been more the conversation than division. Absence has made the heart grow fonder for the local church. We have even found time to enjoy the sound of children laughing and playing outside.
Like Ezekiel’s wheel within the wheel there is another world turning where people have given of themselves until there is little left to give. They almost need a temporary exemption from the scripture, “Be not weary in well doing.” They are carrying a heavy cross right now. Our inconvenience is not worth our complaining when we think about the cost of their sacrifices.
Loving God and neighbor requires working faith. The Bible says, “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:14-17
Both wheels are turning like gears in the clock of life. There is a time for everything under the sun; and no matter what the hour may be; it is time to pray.
“In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare,
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!”
Grace and Peace, Rev Ray
(Rev. Amos is pastor of First United Methodist Church, Elizabethton)