Devotion by Pastor Veronica Tang
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced me to re-evaluate what’s important in life. I did a stock take and asked myself what was truly important and essential to me. I found myself spending quality time with my family and treasuring my loved ones more. I am also intentionally spending more time communing with God, trusting Him for His daily provision of peace and joy; and learning to find glimpses of hope in Him in this time of uncertainties.
Recently, I’ve been pondering over two words: Prominence and Significance. Significance is the quality of being worthy of attention and prominence is the state of being important, famous, or noticeable. A tattoo on the face is prominent and noticeable. If you decide to remove the tattoo, you can still live without it as it is not significant. On the other hand, the heart is a vital organ in the body, and it plays a significant role. It acts as a pump, delivering blood to the rest of the body through a network of arteries and veins. Its function is essential to life. However, it is not noticeable or prominent; no one can see your heart from the outside. Yet, if your heart stops functioning, you would lose your life.
This is a valuable principle for us to hold on to because we often believe that if something is given a lot of visibility, it must be significant. This is not true. In fact, many times, what’s behind the scenes could be the most important. This is hard for us to understand because with our limited perspective, we can’t see how our small actions can have big consequences; and how being faithful in little things matters. Prayer and spending time with God are not given a lot of visibility in our public life, but they are vital to our spiritual life.
People might have the tendency to go for “prominence’’ rather than work on “significance” as it makes us feel better and more important. We may even try to seeking significance through prominence such as prestige, possession and power. However, as believers, our significance must be found in Jesus and in having a relationship with Him. In Matthew 19:30, Jesus says that the “first’’ will become the “last’’ and the “last’ will become the “first’’. With this pandemic, I feel that the Lord is bringing us back to the basics; learning to value what’s significant, rather than what’s prominent. We need to love Him and seek Him; love people and love ourselves.
Loving God, Loving People, Loving Ourselves
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus answered him, “Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you. ’This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is like it in importance: ‘You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself.’ Contained within these commandments to love you will find all the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-39 (The Passion Translation)
- Loving God
- Loving People
- Loving Ourselves
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’’ Deuteronomy 6:5 (NIV)
Amidst this pandemic, let us slow down, pause and reconnect with God.
Let us set aside time to commune with God, pray and read the Bible, allowing Him to change us and mould us. It is paramount to seek God for His righteousness without compromise. We need to focus on significance rather than prominence. Will our actions glorify God?
Love is a verb, and it is an action. We must learn to love people through serving them.
“Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:4 (NIV)
During this pandemic, let us also reconnect with our loved ones and family members; sharing with them the love of Christ through our love in action. There are many others who are suffering and in need of help, if we could just open up our eyes and stretch our hands to to them. We can all find a need and meet it; find a hurt and heal it.
We must know that we are precious to the Lord, and we are loved by Him. He loved us so much that He died on the cross just for us (John 3:16). Please do not allow anyone or anything to tell us otherwise.
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)
“You cannot give away something you don’t have in you.”- Joyce Meyer
We must be filled with the love of God so that we can love ourselves and love others. Part of loving ourselves is learning to practice self-care. Self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health. Self-care is not selfish; it is actually healthy and very necessary.
“Self-Care is giving the world the best of you instead of what is left of you’’-Kathy Smith.
So learn to pause, slow down, rest and seek support if it is needed.
Friends, let us love God more and love others as we love ourselves. We can live a life of significance with Jesus and for Jesus without needing to be prominent.
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV)