The Christian and the Pandemic Virus

In a time when the world is facing an attack from a pandemic virus called the Coronavirus, there seem to be more questions than answers at this time while attempting to find a treatment to reverse the count on the infected people throughout a large number of countries in the worldwide. This virus is not choosing between the rich and the poor or any other factors that separate societies. All races, all creeds, all religions confront the challenges of a deadly virus that daily take the lives of many today.

The fact is that this virus will one day soon meet the vaccine and treatment that will snatch away its ability to harm and take the lives of many at it does now. In the meantime, we are faced with what has been referred to as the invisible enemy in this worldwide war against humanity.

This war has engaged many Christians that are now confronted with a reality check to their faith. You see for many Christians life is composed of abiding within the promises of God in the Holy Scriptures and a full assurance found in the Person of the Holy Spirit that daily guides us towards all truth. As a worldwide Christian community, we face many challenges to our trust in God, in some cases on a daily basis. Those challenges are represented in need for healing from physical sickness, financial needs that affect our homes and businesses, as well as the spiritual needs found in that daily walk of growing in Christ. To some, all three of the above mentioned are a reality, while for others, they can be encountering just one of these.

However, this pandemic is different. We all share in its reality in our societies. The economies worldwide have been affected by the loss of commerce in having to isolate ourselves from others, in this time of self-quarantine. Many have lost their jobs and their incomes. Families have been impacted as our homes have become our way of fighting back against the infection of the coronavirus, while our doctors and researchers find an answer.

This however has led to another war against another unseen enemy. It is the enemy of fear. Fear that is caused by what we don’t know about this virus. Fear about our economic situations. Fear for our families and the chance that some may fall victim to this killer virus. In looking at the human nature of things, it seems natural for people to feel uncertainty and experience these feelings of fear. For was it not the disciples themselves while at sea with Jesus that faced with a possible killer storm awoke the Master fearing for their lives and sealing that fear with the comments “don’t you care that we perish?”. This too seems to be the reactions of many in this storm that we face today. Jesus connected their fear with little faith. It is the shield of faith that gives us the authority to stand against the storm. It is what emboldens us to speak to the storm as our Master did and say “peace, be still”.

Stand firm in knowing that God is still on the throne. That greater than anything in this world is the God and the authority that He has given us in the name of Jesus. As with the Hebrew nation in Egypt that placed the blood on their doors so that the killer plague can pass through without harming anyone within, we must declare the blood of Jesus in the hearts of each of our families and friends so that this virus can also pass through without harming our own. We must stand up in faith and evict fear from our lives since greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world.

In conclusion, I leave you with the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 91:

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence (virus).
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence (virus) that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague (virus) come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”