As there is nothing else to talk about, let me just talk about quarantine.
For the first couple of weeks, I finished off assignments and since then I've been doing various things. Art, exercise, watching Disney+, reading my bible, praying, online shopping, getting bored, decluttering, and probably more that I can't think of.
Quarantine has been... okay I guess. I can feel myself slowly going mad. Every time I think about the fact that I haven't seen anyone except my family in almost 3 weeks I literally just start screaming internally. Apart from internally screaming every now and then, I'm trying to stay positive.
From a Christian point of view, I believe that the coronavirus is part of something bigger. No, the coronavirus is not a good thing and is affecting a lot of people, but I believe God is using it to start a revival that has been a long time coming and that a lot of people in churches all around the world have been praying for. For me, the whole quarantine side of it has been a really good time to just see the things that are truly important and appreciate the little things. But not only that, it's been really good for my relationship with Christ.
My favourite verse in the bible is Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God". It is my favourite verse because it applies to every season and is always reminding to just stop, even for 30 seconds, and remember God and who he is. Through quarantine, there is basically nothing left to do except to be still and know that He is God. I am powerless in this situation, the only thing I can do is stay home to keep others safe, it is only God who can heal the earth of this virus. These past weeks I have felt God in such a new way. I've been more devoted to prayer, to reading my bible and the Lord has blessed me with his presence. Not only this but each morning as I am about to start my day off with social media, God finds a way to use social media to remind me that He is the one I should be starting my day with. For example, last week I woke up, went on social media and the first thing I saw was a post from Steffany Gretzinger saying she had released a new album. This album called Forever Amen is so special. I listened to it straight away and it made me cry and smile and lead me into the presence of Jesus from the first song. I have listened to this album almost every single day and each day it is so fresh. The whole album is about communion with Jesus. Having this connection, breaking bread and drinking wine with the Lord Jesus our Christ. One of the lines in the first song, Remember, says he took the alter and made it a table. This is such a beautiful picture. I love the closeness to Jesus that this picture and the whole album takes us to.
Anyway, enough about the album. It wasn't only that album that God has used to bring me to his presence in the mornings. He has also used things like simple verses people have posted or live streams of people worshipping and talking about new music they've brought out. One morning I even woke up praying. My favourite morning so far since quarantine was the first Sunday of quarantine when I woke up at 6:00am. To start with I was really annoyed, like just why. But then I looked outside my window and saw that it was the beginning of sunrise. So, I decided to get up, get dressed and take a walk around the park at sunrise. I listened to some worship music and really felt that God had just woken me up to see His beauty that he has created. One of the songs I was listening to was Bitter/Sweet by Amanda Lindsey Cook. The lyrics talk about how he makes all things new, he makes winter into spring, He makes the bitter into Sweet. As these lyrics were playing I was just praising God for making the bitterness of a 6am wake up into a sweet moment of beauty and stillness with Jesus.
I am still working out how to spend each morning with God and starting my days right. There are some days where I still get it wrong, a bit like today, but in the end, its always God I come to and he always shows me grace and love. One of the things I've been doing to help myself connect with God in the mornings is devotionals on the YouVersion app. One of the devotionals I've done was about creating 7 healthy habits to help develop spiritual growth. I love the habits and they've really helped me, so I thought I'd share them:
For the first couple of weeks, I finished off assignments and since then I've been doing various things. Art, exercise, watching Disney+, reading my bible, praying, online shopping, getting bored, decluttering, and probably more that I can't think of.
Quarantine has been... okay I guess. I can feel myself slowly going mad. Every time I think about the fact that I haven't seen anyone except my family in almost 3 weeks I literally just start screaming internally. Apart from internally screaming every now and then, I'm trying to stay positive.
From a Christian point of view, I believe that the coronavirus is part of something bigger. No, the coronavirus is not a good thing and is affecting a lot of people, but I believe God is using it to start a revival that has been a long time coming and that a lot of people in churches all around the world have been praying for. For me, the whole quarantine side of it has been a really good time to just see the things that are truly important and appreciate the little things. But not only that, it's been really good for my relationship with Christ.
My favourite verse in the bible is Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God". It is my favourite verse because it applies to every season and is always reminding to just stop, even for 30 seconds, and remember God and who he is. Through quarantine, there is basically nothing left to do except to be still and know that He is God. I am powerless in this situation, the only thing I can do is stay home to keep others safe, it is only God who can heal the earth of this virus. These past weeks I have felt God in such a new way. I've been more devoted to prayer, to reading my bible and the Lord has blessed me with his presence. Not only this but each morning as I am about to start my day off with social media, God finds a way to use social media to remind me that He is the one I should be starting my day with. For example, last week I woke up, went on social media and the first thing I saw was a post from Steffany Gretzinger saying she had released a new album. This album called Forever Amen is so special. I listened to it straight away and it made me cry and smile and lead me into the presence of Jesus from the first song. I have listened to this album almost every single day and each day it is so fresh. The whole album is about communion with Jesus. Having this connection, breaking bread and drinking wine with the Lord Jesus our Christ. One of the lines in the first song, Remember, says he took the alter and made it a table. This is such a beautiful picture. I love the closeness to Jesus that this picture and the whole album takes us to.
Anyway, enough about the album. It wasn't only that album that God has used to bring me to his presence in the mornings. He has also used things like simple verses people have posted or live streams of people worshipping and talking about new music they've brought out. One morning I even woke up praying. My favourite morning so far since quarantine was the first Sunday of quarantine when I woke up at 6:00am. To start with I was really annoyed, like just why. But then I looked outside my window and saw that it was the beginning of sunrise. So, I decided to get up, get dressed and take a walk around the park at sunrise. I listened to some worship music and really felt that God had just woken me up to see His beauty that he has created. One of the songs I was listening to was Bitter/Sweet by Amanda Lindsey Cook. The lyrics talk about how he makes all things new, he makes winter into spring, He makes the bitter into Sweet. As these lyrics were playing I was just praising God for making the bitterness of a 6am wake up into a sweet moment of beauty and stillness with Jesus.
I am still working out how to spend each morning with God and starting my days right. There are some days where I still get it wrong, a bit like today, but in the end, its always God I come to and he always shows me grace and love. One of the things I've been doing to help myself connect with God in the mornings is devotionals on the YouVersion app. One of the devotionals I've done was about creating 7 healthy habits to help develop spiritual growth. I love the habits and they've really helped me, so I thought I'd share them:
- Keep the vision - This is about reminding yourself of the vision that was first set. It talked about when we make new year resolutions we often don't complete them or we forget about them. Keeping the vision is about setting those goals, seeing God's purpose for your life - loving others and spreading the good news - and to just keep going back and reminding yourself about the vision.
- Relearn How to listen - This is about taking that short amount of time to just listen to God, to sit in his presence and wait for him to speak.
- Persevere in Prayer - This is pretty self-explanatory. Just keep on praying.
- Read the Word every Day - Again, self - explanatory.
- Praise God for His daily Gifts - Just praise him for the breath, for the sun, for the warmth, for the activities he gives you, for the gifts you have that he gives you every day.
- Listen to God's voice - In everything, hear God, he is always wanting to speak to us.
- Persevere until you see the fruit - Keep on trying to create these habits, make them Habits and you will see the fruit.
I'm still working on making all of these actual habits, but since reading my bible every day and persevering in prayer and seeking him first every day, I feel at peace and calm. I may be getting easily annoyed and I may be becoming very annoying, but I am trying my hardest to not be annoying and angry and irritable. It's just so hard when you're stuck in the same place for so long.
Anyway, after this long ramble about all sorts of stuff, I hope you found some encouragement or a distraction or just something to do in these days of boredom. I will leave you with these pictures I took when I went for a walk at 6am.
BeeBee
xxx
