This has been quite a week, not just for our nation, but for the world. With the COVID-19 pandemic invading country after country, carrying with it suffering, death, and economic instability, our world has changed seemingly overnight. Millions have been told to shelter in place, businesses have been forced to close or decrease their hours, and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed and are fast running short on supplies.
The reality of this new normal was driven home to me, when I learned my office hours will be cut, starting this next week, due to the economic downturn. Thankfully, with some tightening of our budget, we’ll be fine, but it made me realize many, facing a similar situation, will not be able to absorb that type of loss and will face the prospect of not being able to pay their bills or put food on the table.
Most unsettling is the fact that this is just the beginning. In the coming weeks and months we are going to see things happen in this nation and the world we never dreamed possible. Thousands may be out of work, hospitals overrun, and store shelves stripped bare. Friends, neighbors and family members may grow sick and thousands may die. This is already starting, but it is going to get worse.
In the face of this impending crisis, how then should we, we who call ourselves Christians, respond? Should we, like so many, “faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world…” (Luke 21:26). Do we huddle in our homes, stock our shelves with toilet paper, and hunker down till the storm blows over?
The answer, of course, is a resounding, “No!” Remember “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7). Now is the time for us to step up to the plate like never before. Now is time for us, like Esther of old, to put it all on the line for God’s people. We live in a world reeling from this blow. It is time for us to step into the gap and share the love of Jesus with our neighbors and friends, with the suffering and those overcome by grief, for ‘who knows but that [we] have come to [our] position for such a time as this?”
It is time for us to set aside our self-centeredness, our bickering and quarrelling and “share [our] food with the hungry…provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when [we] see the naked, to clothe them, and not turn away from [our] own flesh and blood.” (Isaiah 58:7).
Even though our churches may be shuttered, our work does not end. Though we have to shelter in place, we can still reach out to others through social media and other means. We can still check on our neighbors, share our food with the hungry, and our clothes with the poor.
Too often overlooked in our concern with stopping the spread of this virus, is the mental toll on those forced into isolation due to the need for social distancing. We are going to see a dramatic rise in depression and anxiety and even suicide as people struggle with loneliness and fear. For these a comforting word or small acts of kindness may mean the difference between life and death.
Most importantly, in these uncertain times, when the very foundations of our society are being shaken, we must show people Jesus. We can share what He has done for us and of His love for them, giving His own life that they might live. In this time when so many are starving for just a little good news, we must share the promise of His soon coming.
We have been told we are in a “war” with an unseen enemy, one intent on our destruction. The truth, however, is this is but the latest battle in a conflict which started long ago in heaven. Revelation 12:7-9 tells us, “Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”
Ever since that day, Satan has been at war with God, determined to destroy as many of God’s children as he can. Ephesians 6:12 tells us “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Just as we cannot see the coronavirus, we cannot see our true enemy either, but we see the results of his work everyday. Through war, crime, famine and disease, Satan spreads misery and suffering throughout the earth, all the while blaming God for his own destructive work.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:21 in the last days “there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.” In fact it will be so bad that “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive…”
But there is Good News! Jesus is coming soon! Matthew 24:29-31 says:
“Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
The war is almost over! This conflict is almost won! “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” (Hebrews 10:36). Until then we have a work to be done and Good News to share.
“So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6). Let us put on “faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” (vs. 8). Let us “encourage one another and build each other up…” (vs. 9)
Brothers and sisters, all around us are the suffering, the hopeless, those overcome with anxiety, “apprehensive of what is coming on the world.” Let us, by our words and actions, daily share with them the love of Jesus that they may too find a reason for hope when the world is turned upside down.
Daily let us “bind up the brokenhearted…proclaim freedom for the captives and release of darkness for the prisoners…comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve.” (Isaiah 61:1-3).
We live in a dark period of earth’s history, where men faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world. But there is hope for Christ’s “light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Today, let us arise and be a light in the darkness, shining brightly in a world lost in darkness and despair. Let us by our words and actions pointing the way out the darkness to a Glorious New Day! May that day come soon, is my prayer!
God bless and have a happy, safe, Sabbath!