“Better Days are Coming”
By
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
Scriptures:- Zephaniah 1:12, Amos 6:1, Psalm 4:6, Deuteronomy 8:2, 2 Chronicles 7:14.
Prayer
Opening:- It’s an understatement to say that we are experiencing a time unlike any other. The Covid-19/Coronavirus pandemic has impacted and changed life in unprecedented ways. The way we live, interact with others, do business, work, entertain, and worship has changed and may never be what we once called normal again.
Life seems to have become surreal, which means dream-like. Social distancing of 6 feet apart is the new standard. We have to stand in line wearing a mask just to get into the store. Hospitals unable to handle the influx of coronavirus patients. Deaths overwhelm the morgues and funeral directors are being asked to come from other states to help with the overwhelming crisis. Unemployment is sky-rocketing out of control with over 3 million claims filled in just a weeks time. Toilet paper has become as precious as gold and equally hard to find.
Because the world is confined people are anxious, uneasy, stressed, loosing track of themselves because familiarity is gone. Alcohol consumption is on the rise and domestic abuse is climbing every day. Faith is being tested and tried like never before. Because we are unable to plan for the future, we don’t know what will happen tomorrow needless to say 6 months from now we find ourselves living in an uncertain and seemingly eternal present. Life is complex and we don’t know what to do. If I get a cough or a fever do I go to the doctor or straight to the hospital, do I need to be tested and if so where can I get one at. Life has been interrupted, we are forced to stay home or shelter in place by an unseen deadly enemy.
Question:- Maybe you have heard it or maybe you have even asked it yourself “How could God allow something like the coronavirus to happen”?
Last week I talked about a Dichotomy. A Dichotomy is basically two things that represent opposing each other, for example:- Night & Day, Light & Dark, Flesh & Spirit, Natural & Spiritual, The World & The Church. I stated that when God speaks He speaks to the church and the world at the same time, the message is different but the purpose is the same.
The purpose is 2 fold – a). To get our attention b). To draw us closer to Him. This is both for the World and the Church.
WATCH THIS:- To the world He says, I didn’t come up with this but when I saw it I had to use it. God said I’ve taken everything you worship away. You want to worship athletes – so I closed the stadiums. You want to worship musicians – so I closed the Civic Centers. You want to worship actors so I closed the theaters. You want to worship money so I collapsed the economy and crashed the stock market. You don’t want to go to church so I made it so you can’t go now that you wish you could.
Now that all of that has happened the world is saying Lord Lord have mercy on us. People who never prayed or hardly ever prayed are praying now. I’ve seen commercials on TV that say we need more of God’s love. Pew Research Center, a survey organization, says more than ½ adults, 55% say they have prayed for the end of Covid-19. He is getting their attention and He is drawing them closer to Him.
To the Church He is saying Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. You have become stagnant and have come to His nostrils as a stinking mess. O Zion what’s the matter now, you don’t pray like you use to pray what what’s the matter now. We have allowed church to become complacent and settle for mediocrity turning church into a coffee house social gathering place instead of the church being the light of the world or the change agent to the world.
So He has allowed these things to happen, Deuteronomy 8:2 says “to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no”. Not for Him but for us to get our attention and draw us closer to Him.
God has allowed this pandemic to happen. He has allowed death to run its course. He has allowed fear and panic to grip the hearts of the people. He has allowed shelter in place to happen. He has allowed normalcy to change. He has interrupted life but He says better days are coming. However, before better days can come we must learn yet another dichotomy and that is premise & promise. Everyone wants the promises of God, we want life more abundantly we want it failing to understand or do the premise.
Premise = the pre-requisite that must happen before the promise is released.
How Will Better Come:- 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 says “ If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. Here He cause a nation to pray in verse 13 – the world is praying because of the coronavirus. Verse 14 gives the premise pre-requisites which are 4 and 3 promises.
Remember the message is to the Church and to the World different messages with the same purpose.
1.) Humble Themselves:- remove pride. We often times are very prideful its all about me me me and failing to love one another.
2.) Pray:- Talk to God. People are praying like they haven’t done in a long time.
3.) Seek His face:- Look for His glory and not just His hand. Someone may say but the Bible says no man has seen His face and lived yet we are to seek His face -EXACTLY. We must die out to worldly desires, die out to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
4.) Turn from wicked ways:- Repent turn 180 degrees from sin and the sinful lifestyle. THEN
5.) Hear from Heaven
6.) Forgive sin
7.) Heal the Land
Someone may ask how to pray. Well there are many ways to pray. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and he taught them what we call the Lord’s prayer Our father which art in heaven hollowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
I like what David said in Psalm 61:1-3 “Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy”.
The words of the prayer aren’t as important as they must be prayed with a broken heart (HUMBLENESS) and a contrite spirit (showing sincere remorse, filled with guilt and a true desire for atonement).
CLOSING:- Better Days Are Coming. There is a song that I like by a Reggae Artist name Jimmy Cliff called Better Days Are Coming. Some of the words are “Better days are coming by and by Don't you get down hearted, don't you cry Troubles will be over, all our joys come over
Better days are coming by and by Don't you know Better days are coming by and by
Don't you get down hearted, don't you cry Sorrows will be over, all our joys come over
Better days are coming by and by It can't be this way always A train must come, a train must come There must be some brighter days We'll have fun, we'll have fun, yeah Better days are coming by and by Don't you get down hearted, don't you cry Troubles will be over, all our joys come over Better days are coming by and by”.
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
