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Do You Need Hope and Healing During a Pandemic

Hi everyone. Shawn Maguire here from New Vision Counseling and Consulting. As you can see I’m not at work right now because we’re on a global
pandemic. Covid-19 has taken over the world in so many ways, but it doesn’t have to take over your world and run your show. Today I’m gonna share with you how because you know if you’re like me you’ve been majorly impacted by this. As a matter of fact right before I got on this video some of my friends one of my friends in particular just lost somebody really close to him. I don’t know what that looks like for you I don’t know if you still have a job I don’t know if you’re struggling to make ends meet because your job is either ended or about to end maybe you’re the person that is trying to figure out what you’re gonna do for a living situation because you can’t pay your mortgage anymore maybe your immune compromised or somebody you love has a health issue that they get the corona it could be devastating or deadly wherever you’re at I want you to know that God was not caught off-guard by this and there’s hope and there’s help for you today I’m going to go over some ways that we can reignite our hope that was in us because you know if you’re like me you’ve been going down a life’s path and doing your very best and the corona came and just knocked you
off and so today I want to encourage you that you can get back on but there’s some really specific things that you can do to start this process one of them is realized you’re anchored into something you know they call the people that give the news anchors news anchors why because whatever they’re saying they’re anchoring in your soul so that means we better be really sure that what they’re saying is what our soul needs to hear now that doesn’t mean we don’t live informed and we’re not aware of what’s going on in the news and how to be wise and follow the CDC’s recommendations but it does mean that the majority of your consumption should not be anchored in the bad news of the media but it should be focused in the good news of the gospel that’s right remember they call another name for the gospel the Bible is the good news why is that well because hope is an anchor to our soul that in times of trouble that we as Christians still have this hope that transcends all circumstances and that God’s peace can guard our hearts and our minds like Philippians 4:8 says and so that’s where we need to put our focus and attention is making sure that we’re not anchored in following every latest breaking news story but anchoring God and staying informed but then not being transformed by the news but by the good news of Jesus Christ in the middle of the storm so I want you to think about what did you consider or what came to mind first when you first woke up this morning that’s an indication of what you’re filling your heart your mind and what’s dominating your life right now I know for me the first week and a half it was so heavy like I felt like every five to 10 minutes I had to pray and ask God for grace and to break the soul tie of fear off of my life fear of my daughter because she’s got asthma fear of what’s gonna happen to her fear of the team that I serve with and then I feel a little responsible for a lot of ways are they gonna be able to survive provide for their families in this upcoming crisis what about the health of our nation what about the health of our president and people that are serving in office and so instead of just living in that fear I chose to pray and and to be aware of what’s happening but not be transformed by it but then I started to spend more time with God in the word meditating on scriptures so that his words were the ones that were on my mind his words were what I thought about when I went to bed and what started to canvass my day and what I thought about when I woke up in the morning the next thing I want you to consider doing it’s really powerful is I want you to consider what happened to your habits are you still getting up early are you going to bed too late because you’re watching the news are you on social media way more than you’ve ever been and what kind of social media how are you eating what about your exercise remember that thing called exercise I just would encourage you that your habits and routines can be the ladder that God uses to help you climb back up and to restore a sense
I’ve normally seen your life again a sense of normalcy in your life again now the other thing I want to encourage you to do is remember that you are not a victim but in Christ you are a weapon that’s right you’ve been weaponized to be a role model because Christ followers the darker the environment the brighter our light from within shines and here’s the great news that our riches don’t come from this world he says God says he
supplies all of our needs according to his riches and glory so that means that no matter what happens in our economy or in our world that our needs are always met by our Heavenly Father according to the riches of his glory not our circumstances thank God for that and that means that we can go out as weapons to destroy and push back darkness that we are role models that can shine so bright like a city on a hill like a beacon of a lighthouse when people are up and down in the storms of life our hope is an anchor that keeps our ships our lives secure in him you know
anchors hold a ship steady and you know it just goes all over the place some ships have two anchors one of the the one in the front one in the back depending how big it is and I know that if you don’t have an anchor and it’s windy it’s blowing and the waves are going everywhere because I love fishing so much I’ve experienced this with and without anchors and you’ll just be blown everywhere and you can’t control where you end up so anchor yourself in this this time in God anchor your heart in his presence and his goodness and His faithfulness in his love and you will emanate his love his assurance and that faith will be tangible it can be given and serving others and as a role model you’re not just thinking about geez my family have enough toilet paper does my family have enough groceries does my family have enough resources and money to provide but what about the people around you ask God to give you wisdom and resources to provide for them as well and so I would encourage you to take this opportunity to tune back into a God who’s desperately in love with you and is seeking your attention and he wants to broadcast his love to a world that’s desperate to hear it they just might not know it yet so guys be encouraged that our hope is not in the circumstances it’s not even in our economy it’s not in our 401ks it’s not on how much food we have in our house with the shelter we live in or the jobs or security of career it’s in him because I know that this has really dislodged so much of my hope that was in me controlling my circumstances I’d love to know as much about a situation as I
possibly can so that I can make sure that I have enough knowledge to be successful in it and to serve the people I love and myself and my family but I don’t have that and and really neither do you right now what we have is the God who is faithful and wants to grab you by your hand and he wants to say look no matter how bleak it looks it will be okay with me you know that song is well with my soul that guy wrote that after he lost his entire family when they were crossing the sea to come see him he lost his entire family and he wrote that song and is well with my soul in the midst of a storm so guys I would encourage you to press into the Lord and reach out to others and if you say Shawn that’s great but I need more help great news
I new vision counseling and consulting we are here for you this is our go time so many people are saying Shawn do you have time to do this you have more time and really I don’t because I’ve been so busy speaking to the situation and the crisis were in and serving that patience and the people that are in our lives and we want to serve you so let us know if we can help you go to new vision counseling that live and we can do counseling we can do life coaching outside of our state we can do counseling inside and we just want to be a resource for you and this time and equip you to go transform the world instead of letting the world transform you hey god bless I look forward to hearing from you really soon.

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