Transcript of bisi’s message
Okay. Hello, church family. This is Bisi, the lady with a guide dog with a service dog, and it is my prayer to encourage us with daily encouragement. First of all, I want to thank everyone that has been sharing. It has been very encouraging, and I want to take this opportunity too to say a big thank you to our leaders and our pastors for the idea of creating this avenue where we can encourage each other, where we can hear each other's voices, and where we can continue to share the word of God together. So, it is a great avenue and we thank God for that.
Now about some weeks ago Barbara, my friend, just called me. “Oh, how would you like to do the daily encouragement?” I said, “No, I don't want to do it because my voice is horrible!” I don't, I don't like how my voice sounds in recording. I don't know, maybe because my hearing is very sensitive. So sometimes the way I hear myself when I leave a voicemail message for people—oooh I don't like it. But this one I have to do you because I've been benefiting and enjoying other people encouraging me, so I just thought yeah, I better take a step of faith with my voice. Hopefully you guys will hear me clearly. So that's what I'm doing.
So, after Barbara told me, I started thinking about it and also I think it was Sunday or Saturday. I finished studying and I was tired. And I was just relaxing, and I said, oh my God this coronavirus is never going. When is it going to go? And I was counting how many weeks have we been in social isolation? And by Sunday was like three weeks already. And I was saying “God, when is this thing going to go?” and “Give me the thing that comes to my mind.” And the immediate thoughts that came to my mind was that give thanks in everything. I said, what?! Yes, give thanks in everything. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18. It says, "Thank God in everything no matter what circumstances may be. Be thankful, and thanks be thankful and give thanks to"—sorry...I'm reading my breath. I don't even know why okay, "give thanks in everything. Whatever the circumstances may be, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus.” So as children of God, I strongly feel this time we need to create time to give thanks to God, to say thank you, Jesus, for everything because it says "whatever the circumstances may be." Okay. This is the circumstances we are going through now; it is a difficult time. It is a time of social isolation. It is Covid-19 period, and we're not used to this type of things, staying at home doing nothing. We are go, go, go, go, go people, but God is telling us to give thanks. And, don't get me wrong—it's very hard to give thanks when things are hard. But God is instructing us that we should create time to give thanks in everything, whether good or bad, whatever the circumstances may be, whether it is good or bad as well. So, I just want to remind my church family that this time let us create time to give thanks for all things and for whatever the circumstances we are going through now by giving thanks. I'm sure very soon this time shall pass.
So, as I was thinking of that and it was impressed upon my mind to share Psalm 46 with us. It's one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 46. And as I was reading it, God started ministering to me, and it was a blessing to me as I was meditating upon it on Sunday, and I thought I should share it with us. You know so for us at this time, I would like us to focus on reading Psalm 46 and Psalm 91. Both 46 and 91 are very powerful and there for protection and there for encouragement. So, Psalm 46 verse 1 says, it says, "God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in time of trouble." We all know this is the time of trouble, the time we cannot go out, the time we cannot do whatever we want to do, the time we cannot hang out with friends. Thank God family can keep coming to see us, thank God we can talk to each other on the phone, but we cannot physically mix, even at church. We cannot congregate together to serve God. So, the Bible says God is our refuge and is our present help in time of trouble. I want us to believe that God is with us at this time. Number two say "Therefore, we will not fear though the Earth be changed and though the mountains be shaken into the midst of the sea." So, what about we try to say that? Yeah, it may look terrible physically, it may look unbearable. It may look unbelievable, and the news will be telling us how many people are dying every second because they are good at that. That's what they keep telling us from morning till night. From morning to night people that are dying every second or thoroughly overwhelming which is true, it is the reality. But the Bible is telling us we should not fear, for mountains be shaken. You know, it says the Lord is in the midst of her. So, God is with us no matter what the circumstances may be. And I jumped too fast. Five, verse five is "God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved. God will help her right early at the dawn of the morning." So, God is telling us that it's emphasizing, the word of God is emphasizing that He is with us no matter what the circumstances, no matter the situation, no matter what we are experiencing, no matter what the social isolation. It says, He is with us and He will help us and will be there to see us through.
And verse 7 is one of my favorites. It said "The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, our Fortress and Hightower." And I want to encourage us to try and memorize verse 7 because from what we are hearing in the news, and this is where we need to be careful. I'm not saying don't listen to the news, but we should be careful how we listen to the news because the news is not bringing us good news; it is bringing us bad news. And remember in Romans 10:17, the Bible says faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God. I want to let us know that here comes by hearing, hearing negative negative. The more negative we listen to, the more negative news we hear, the more fear we will have, and we don’t want fear, we don't want to be afraid. We don't want to be panicking. So we should be careful what we listen to and we should know that. I said "come by hearing" so also fear comes by hearing, so it depends on what we hear. So, this is why number 7 of Psalm 46 is very good for us. It says the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, our Fortress and Hightower. So, when you go out shopping or picking up a few groceries, don't be afraid, you know, don't be afraid. Oh, no I'm going to catch it. A friend of mine was telling me, "Oh they say this coronavirus is in us." I said, "No, it's not in us. Coronavirus is not in us; it's an epidemic that just happened suddenly, and it will go suddenly, too, so it’s not in us." God didn’t create us with coronavirus. Don't get me wrong. We can have flu, we can have cold. Those are viruses. That is normal, they come and go, but they don't, they don't live in us as some people tend to believe now. So, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, our Fortress and Hightower, so if we can try and memorize that, that will help us a lot to cope with what we are hearing or whatever we're experiencing. Last verse is “Be still and know [and recognize and understand] that I am God:I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." So, verse 10 is telling us that we should be still at this time because who knows what God wants to do in our lives spiritually at this time. It is when you are still that you are able to hear God. It is when you are still that you are able to learn more from sit at His feet. It is when you are still that you are able to think clearly, you are able to plan, you are able to make concrete decisions. So, this time of isolation may look bad, this time of social isolation may look bad. But God is telling us to be still, He wants us to know and recognize and understand that God is with us, and He will be exalted among nations, He will be exalted in the earth.
Verse 11 says the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, a high tower and a stronghold. So, this is full of promises. And as the Lord is with us, I want us to take courage in that. And the word of God says He will be exalted among nations. Let us take time to pray for our nations that peace be still. Let us take time to pray for nations of the world, that God will remember mercy and that the mercy of God will prevail over judgment and that God will help us to overcome this time. And let us trust God that after this time, God will bring Revival in this nation and God will bring revival in the nations of the world because by this time, when this time passes, you will make us a better person and will make us stronger in our faith.
So I hope this encouragement has been helpful to all of us, and I hope that you benefit and you are blessed from this encouragement. And I'm praying for all of us, that God will continue to sustain us, God will continue to be with us, and God will continue to use this to unite us together in faith and in love of one another. So, thank you so much for this opportunity you’ve given me to share with my fellow Believers. Take care and God bless you. -Bisi
Psalm 46 Amplified Bible (AMP)
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to soprano voices. A Song.
God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable],
A very present and well-proved help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas,
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains tremble at its roaring. Selah.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her [His city], she will not be moved;
God will help her when the morning dawns.
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered and were moved;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.
Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has brought desolations and wonders on the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
”Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord of hosts is with us;The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.
Amplified Bible (AMP)
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