I hope this post finds everyone reading safe and sound and I pray that we are all practicing kindness and gratitude during this turbulent time, not only in our individual lives but for the whole world.

Here are some ways you can use this time of isolation to really bring yourself closer to God and to rest in the purpose that He has for this time:

Make a Gratefulness Board

During a time when we can focus on everything that we don’t have, and everything that we I think it’s important to turn our minds to everything that we do have, everything that God has given us.

Make a board, poster or list of things that you have access to right now and around you that you can be thankful for. Practice gratefulness. Praise God for all His benefits!

Video Call Bible Studies

Both to encourage you, to give you company and for fresh faces to look at have a video call bible study conference. Grab some blankets (for those of us in winter), a coffee, your bibles and journals and get started digging into the word of God as a community.

As many of you know so many churches have now gone online, maybe yours has to! Don’t let this make you lazy! Get dressed, put some shoes on if you have to and show up online! This is an amazing opportunity to tune out the things of this world, and draw nearer to God because actually, there’s nothing else to do!

Start an Online Community

Whether thats a Facebook Page, an Instagram hashtag, or just a group email, get together around each other during this time and build up communities. We are all facing more or less the same issues, and when we face it together as a community, in the name of Jesus we are strong as one body of God’s people. Remember even where 2 or 3 are gathered, He is there among them.

Another cool idea, is to download the Bible App and to create a group on there so you can share bible verses and ideas surrounding them to friends and family. This is an awesome app in general, review coming on it soon!!

Don’t forget those people around you in reality, your neighbors and your local businesses. Call in to see if they need anything, shout from your windows or simply leave an encouraging note in the mail box or at the door. Don’t ever underestimate the power of hope you can give to someone.

Start an Instagram Hashtag

Start an Instagram hashtag that spreads hope to friends and whanau-family (as we call it here in NZ). Let’s spread some kindness, instead of panic because there’s enough of that going around. Post pictures of yourselves doing nice things for other people or sharing ideas on how to do that, and start a hashtag that other people can follow and pass on! It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around will warm up in its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love, once you’ve experience it. You spread His love, to everyone. You want to pass it on!

#StayAtHome #DancersOfInstagram #PlantsMakeMeHappy #PlantsPlantsPlants #ViewFromMyWindow #AtHomeWorkouts #MeetTheWorld

Don’t Forget the People Around You

If you live with the same people you have lived with your whole life i.e. family, this is a great time to spend some quality time with them, that our normal busy lives wont’s allow. Whether thats spending time praying together, or reading God’s work and expounding on it this is a great time to come together in the Lord.

Many of us have families that are disconnected and sometimes find that life getting in the way fits us just fine, if it means avoiding the hard conversations and the awkward glances and feelings. But now God has given us a great opportunity to really get to know one another, and to have those conversations and feel those feelings, only this time there’s no where to run. Let’s invest in our families at this time, because if we don’t now then we might never be able to deal with those issues.

DIY Art

Spruce up your home or room with some DIY decor. I will be linking lots of great faith-based DIY videos here soon, so stay tuned for that! Get your hands doing something and your head out of the boredom, and reflect upon God’s word and His character while creating some art!

I myself created a a DIY prayer room when I had some free time, it was quick and completely easy to do, check it out here.

Journal

If ever there was a time to sit down and reflect, it is such times as this. It’s the perfect time to re-look at goals, see where we are in our walk with God and re-align ourselves to His purpose. It is a time where we must take a deep look at what is going on in the world and see how it relates to us and our faith, and how we can give glory to God in all this mess. We can be inspired by God’s word, to deeply reflect on all that is going on in the world so that we are not swayed about by every worry, fear and anxiety that comes our way.

Don’t just journal about the bad things. Journal about all the positives too. About what God has done, about what God is going and about what He is going to do. Gratitude will turn what you have into enough.

Change Your Perspective

It has been said that if you look up from your phone every 20 minutes and stare out into the distance (specially nice if you have nature around), your eyes will adjust to the screen that you have been exposed to and cause less damage than it would if you had stared at it for hours on end. This illustrates an important aspect of our world today.

If we continue to look at the death toll, the people loosing there jobs, maybe even our own jobs and missed opportunities and dashed plans, all we will feel is damaged. We will feel like the world is against us, God isn’t for us and that we are all doomed in a situation that is only getting worse and will never end. When we continue to think about these things and meditate on them we will only find ourselves getting more and more into a cycle of doom, rather than seeing the opportunities of this time. The time to get to know family, the time we can spend in God’s word, the ways in which we can help and serve other people.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Phil. 4:8

Start Praying

Your quiet time training starts here! If we aren’t getting into God’s Word and praying to Him now, then I don’t know when the world or we ourselves will. It is a scary and uncertain time, but nothing that a conversation with the Lord won’t heal or give peace in. The point is, we just have to have an open heart and try. I have never heard of anyone, regretting it! There’s no more excuse for the “I don’t have time excuse” because if we have an abundance in anything right now, its time.

Just start with a 5 minute quiet time, you have nothing to loose! Then you can extend it as much as you like. Just take this time to be with the Lord, I can’t stress that enough! Now is the time we all have to get together and pray not only for ourselves, and for our families but for the whole world! That’s huge. The world needs our prayers, it needs each individual prayer and while even I have at many times wondered what difference my prayer would make in such a big world, God’s word has proved time and time again that no prayer ever goes unheard and that they were all in their own special way answered in God’s own way and time.

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” Jer. 29:12-13

Don’t Neglect Nature

If you have any kind of greenery or nature around you , make the most of it! Go for a walk nearby, open up the windows and take some time to listen to the sound of the rain. Look out of your window and into the sky and see how big and how great our God is, it really changes your perspective.

If you don’t have access to anything like this, then YouTube and google is your friend. Create a nature wall, listen to the sounds of rain or thunderstorms or your favorite bird chirping away, and maybe even watch some David Attenborough. Something about nature and creation, revels to us something about God’s character in a way that most other things can’t. So take the time to see some green!

Time for Blog Content

For those of us who don’t have much time to blog, and who always put it on the back burner what an amazing time to get into it and share our ideas with the world. Whether that’s doing a bit of a photo shoot for some blog pictures, doing a brain dump of ideas or just reflecting on how we feel, now is the time that we can all come together and share ideas and thoughts as a community and into the world.

This is also a great time to spend seeing what other influencers in the community do, bloggers who you look up to even and see how you can blog in a way that screams you and your cause, and how you can take the time to make sure it is this way. Personally, I am really excited to do this in my quarantine period and thank God for the opportunity to minister to His name.

GIVE

While it is important to look after our needs during this time, it is equally as important to do whatever we can for others too. If that means buying groceries for an elderly person you know, or cooking for someone who’s lost their job or giving someone, somewhere to stay. We can even give to the COVID-19 cause on so many web pages and volunteer our time to other people through many organizations. Find one hat fits your bill and skills, and serve others just as He served us.

Just Rest

While doing all the above things is great. Remember, just rest. Take it all in. Acknowledge how you are feeling, be there for those around you and do your best to not cause harm to others intentionally or unintentionally.

As the world keeps spinning, even though its people are in turmoil remember the same God who makes the world spin, has allowed this event in our lives. The same God who has allowed this event, controls our lives. He looks at each and everyone of us individually, and he cares for our feelings and our circumstances. It may be a global pandemic but it is an individual confrontation for so many, yet God is still on the throne.

God is still on the throne,

And He will remember His own;

Tho’ trials may press us and burdens distress us,

He never will leave us alone;

God is still on the throne,

He never forsaketh His own;

His promise is true, He will not forget you,

God is still on the throne. Kit­tie L. Suf­field

Stay Blessed and Safe,

Sarah 💜