Pandemic

If you had told me a few weeks ago that we will not be able to have any church services at all in Malaysia, I would have laughed and say you are crazy.

Then, last Monday, the government imposed a Partial Lockdown or Movement Restriction Order on the whole of Malaysia where everyone is to stay at home and not leave the house unless it is absolute necessary, like for essential marketing, etc…  It was a desperate measure needed to contain the spread of the pandemic Covid-19 virus.

Suddenly, everyone went berserk, panicking and grabbing everything on the supermarket shelves.  

Like a herd of buffaloes where one runs, all run.  

Like the pigs running down the hills at Gerasenes. 

It was group fear.  Herd mentality.  That is the way we humans are.

We are some place that a lot of people have not been before. 

It has shaken up our way of doing things. 

It has shaken up our sense of control.

And we forget that God is in control.

We have never been through a pandemic, a world-wide affliction, before.  We have only seen it at the movies. 

It feels so unreal.  

It feels so strange.

Maybe this is just what we need..?

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger …………, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV)

To make us understand that we do not live by our strength alone…?

I was meditating on James 1 last week.  James tells us to consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds, because the testing of our faith will produce perseverance resulting in maturity of our Christian character.  And in the same context in verse 5, he urges us to seek wisdom from God who gives generously to all who asks.  Why?  Because people facing trials often do lack wisdom.  Wisdom in understanding the nature and purpose of trials and knowing how to respond.

We need wisdom to change our focus from fear to faith.  This is our chance to practise what we believe.  To trust God.  To believe His Word.  And a few years down the road, we will be able to say, "Remember 2020?  God took care of us!"

The Old Testament tells the story of a man named Jehoshaphat.  He was in big trouble.  Three armies were marching against him and Jehoshaphat was terrified, and he asked everyone to fast and pray.

He prayed, “O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.” (2 Chronicles 20:12 NLT)

That should be the posture of the Christian:

We have never been here before, and we do not know what to do…

We are helpless, but our eyes are fixed on you, God Almighty!

We appeal to God’s character

We confess our own inability, and

We fix our eyes on the Lord.

That’s all we can do in a situation like this.  We cannot understand it.  Even the people who are smart enough to understand it do not truly understand it. 

We can either pray, or we can worry.  But worry is not going to change anything.  It will not help to fight off the virus.

“Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27 NIV)

Rather than worrying and be anxious, scriptures call us to respond in prayer. 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6 ESV)

Worrying will lead to panic, whilst praying will lead to peace.

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” (Isaiah 26:3 KJV)

In the midst of uncertainty, we need someone in whom we can trust.  And we can trust in God.

“….for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  

So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5b~6 ESV)

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.” (Isaiah 12:2 NIV)

When everything around us does not make sense, we have to remind ourselves that God is not perplexed at all.  He is still on the throne.                                 

During the dark days of WW2 in London, when bombs were raining down on the city, the people were living in constant fear.  There was this one man’s undaunted voice that would be heard regularly on the radio all over the nation inspiring them to new hope. 

Their cause was just,

their government was resolute,

their army will not fail them. 

The people listened and they took heart. 

That voice was the voice of Winston Churchill.

What Winston Churchill did for the English in WW2, Jesus does for us in whatever struggle that we are in. 

The battle is the Lord’s. 

It is the voice that we listen for. 

It is the voice of absolute certainty and power and strength. 

He speaks to us of peace and He gives us encouragement. 

He raises our morale. 

He fills us with the strength that we need.

Let us spend more time on His Word.  In times of stress, we are very sensitive to the Bible.  We can hear the Shepherd’s voice clearly.

Whenever we read the Bible in good times, we have to prepare our hearts, to remind ourselves that without the Lord we will be in trouble.  But now, we do not have to prepare our hearts quite so much because we are in trouble.

Remember "Operation Lallang"?  Every Christian just went to church like the chicken to the roost.  We needed no coaxing!

We need to spend more time in the Word. 

We need to show Christian love and compassion to our neighbours in tangible ways, more now than ever.
Share with those who are in need of, like, masks...?
Sometimes, our lack of physical needs is an opportunity for the body of Christ to respond...

Let people see our lives, that we are different.  That our God is Who He say He is.

We need to pray.  God is removing a lot of our confidences.  And we are learning again to rely on God and on each other.

Pray for protection from the Covid-19 virus.  Pray for healing for those stricken with the Covid-19 virus. Pray for those in the frontlines.  Pray for our country. 

God is in control.  The earth is hurling through space at 66,000 mph.  If God is not in control, we are in deep shit.  We are in big trouble…

We will get through this.  This is like nothing we have ever experienced before.  God can use this to strengthen us, to grow us, to help us realise what is really important in life.  As we pray for each other, encourage each other, move forward, follow the instructions issued by the Ministry of Health, we can make it through and come out on the other side, victorious.

We have a lot of questions that we don’t have any answers to, but we have no question as to Who is in control.