“LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”

Psalm 90:1

I see three vital life-sustaining truths right there. Faith. Home. Family.

I can’t get over this Scripture right now. Psalm 90. This “A prayer of Moses, the man of God” as my Study Bible entitles it. I’ve typed the first verse of it above in the King James Version. In the middle column of my Bible, it tells me that “dwelling place” can mean refuge. Which our homes should be for all of us. But during this time in history, they are no doubt, being so much more.

A lot of us are working from home, schooling from home, visiting our loved ones online from home, ministering from home, the list could go on and on because most of what our world gets to do, has to be … from home.

Faith. The Christian Calendar has us on the last half of the season of Lent. This year, I’ve been doing my daily reading from Bill Elliff’s book “Prayer With No Intermission: 40 Days to Unceasing Prayer.” It is from his Graceful Truth Series, Volume 3. For the 40 days, Bill leads us to a Scripture and truth that focuses us on the importance of unceasing prayer. Which is not just a suggestion in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, but a goal set by a man of God who should know it works.

“Pray without ceasing”

1 Thessalonians 5:17

On Day 24, the reading was focused on the brevity of life. Psalm 90 is his text where Bill makes this statement, “We act as if there are many days to accomplish the work set before us, when in reality there are but few.” We need to grow a faith that stands firm during the toughest of times. The kind of faith that depends every moment on the mercy and grace of God. The kind of faith that prays about everything, at all times. The kind of faith that refuses to waste one moment of the limited days we have.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Psalm 90:12

Home. Corrie Ten Boom is quoted as saying, “You may never know that Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have.” This is a woman who should know what she is talking about as well. Google her life and you will find a woman, full of faith, who knew that God was her home. This was her truth. Her relationship with Jesus held her through the Holocaust during World War II, a concentration camp and beyond.

I’ve been praying for us who have to stay at home when we would really rather be out fellowshipping face-to-face. Hugging and kissing on our grandkids. Giving and receiving a genuine handshake to a new acquaintance. But I’ve also been praying for those who don’t have a home to shelter in. Who don’t get to go to work, who don’t have the privilege of online visitation or worship. I am praying that the Lord would comfort them and make Himself so real to them now. To show them that He is their Home, their Refuge. I am also praying that those of us who have the ability to share, do it now, more than ever before.

Family. From generation to generation there have been challenges. In my lifetime, I have never seen one such as COVID-19. An invisible attacker that can only be fought right now with us distancing ourselves from one another. We are flesh and blood, carrying around the precious truth of Christ. Body and soul, while we are here. This attacker wants to destroy the body and that prompts us to fear, but we are more than that. I am a nurse, so I know the basics of how viruses operate, and this is a bad one. However, it does not have the power to separate us from the love of God. Nothing can.

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

Romans 8:38-39

From one generation to another, we need to pass this truth on. The younger ones are looking to us and watching our actions and reactions right now. We have the potential to influence them for the Kingdom and show them that He is our Home, our Shelter, our Refuge at all times. He is good, merciful, kind and loving.

We will be on the other side of this one day, I don’t know when, but faith doesn’t require me to. The next generation will remember how we handled it. May their memories contain our courage, wisdom, kindness, faith and most of all love.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:1, NIV