Message from Bill Griffin
I was referred recently to a verse in Isaiah which seemed to be so pertinent to this time – “Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves a little while until his wrath has passed by.” (Is.26.20).
How up to date, how up to the minute in fact! A call, I felt for the people of God in this time of lockdown to enter their rooms of prayer and quiet reflection, where there is place for God and space for him to speak. Jesus himself said “when you pray, go into your room by yourself and pray to the Father who is there in the secret place …….(Mt.6). There abiding in Christ and letting his word abide in us, (Jn.15), we may simply ask as the Spirit leads.
The mention of ‘hiding ourselves’ reminds of the hymn
“O safe to the rock that is higher than I,
My soul in it’s conflicts and sorrow would fly.
In tempests of life, on it’s wide heaving sea,
Thou blest Rock of Ages, I’m hiding in Thee.”
Psalmist David says “You are my hiding place, you preserve me from trouble, and compass me about with songs of deliverance”. (Ps.32). While all efforts are bent on beating the pandemic, our song of praise that it is GOD who delivers – and ”hidden with God in Christ” (Col.3.3), he it is who delivers us in, from, and through this and every trial. Wonderful!
Then comes the word ‘wrath’. Not a word we like in respect of God, even less the word ‘punish’ in the verse following. But there it is, amidst God’s faithfulness, comes his pending judgement upon the unhearing, heedless people of Judah – for God is consistently faithful to his own Word. And he surely has his word for us to heed at this time. May we be listening in.
So, circumstance having given us this extended time wherein we may enter the covert place of prayer, may we be found faithful, praying that people everywhere will be hearing God in a special way, responding to him, and “approach the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb.4).
God Bless,
Bill Griffin