Corona virus

If fear is one of the favourite weapons of the enemy, how is the church to respond in the face of the media madness which is going on over the corona virus?

At the time of writing , of the 7,700.000,000 people on the planet,  2, 900 have died of the virus.

456,000 people die each year from malaria

56,000 people die each year from flu

estimated 24,000 deaths every year from lightning strikes  ( stats are approximate and taken from various Google searches on WHO research documents)

So, as it stands we have significantly less to fear from Corona than we do of the next freak weather event.

In addition, not only do 80% of people who are diagnosed with the virus recover from it, but of the remaining 20% who catch it, so far NO children under the age of ten have died - it seems to be bypassing the very young altogether.  Those most likely to succumb are the elderly or those who are already imuno compromised.  The group which are also most vulnerable to the common cold, flu, and any number of viral infections.

Im not saying that we dont need to be cautious.  But I really genuinely dont think we need to be fearful, terrorised, losing sleep, phoning the GP either.

Every year or so there seems to be an outbreak of something new, for which we dont yet have vaccines, and which is contagious and potentially deadly.   If we live our lives in fear of catching something we will all end up behind closed doors, working from home, schooling via Skype, shopping online and never going to another concert or party or church meeting again.  Hmmmmm, if I were Satan Id be rubbing my hands with glee.   

 Corona is a plague which has been loosed on the planet by an enemy who is more interested in changing our mindsets, distancing us from each other, filling us with fear and suspicion than in actually killing us by disease.  Church, we have weapons! 

                                 

Those weapons are MIGHTY.  And they are FOR something.   

We saw what happened when the church across the world started to earnestly pray about the Australian bush fires.   Within 24 hours of a concerted push in prayer the rains started to come.  And as prayer continued across the globe so the rain increased and eventually triumphed over the fire.

That was a training ground for what is to come.  Over the internet the church pulled together, focused and prayed.  We are going to need to do it again and again as the days draw to the end time.  So rather than being afraid, listening to the news and feeling helpless, resigning ourselves to the virus hitting our shores and devastating our health service and economy and lives - lets pray.  Use our weapons.  Declare that God is sovereign and good, and has placed the enemy of man firmly under His feet.  Let's pray for increased resistance to the virus in those who have it.  Lets pray for supernatural breakthrough for those working on a vaccine. For the weather to do whatever it needs to do in order to slow the spread.   We are not helpless in the face of an inevitable pandemic.  

We are the history makers.  

We are the world changers

We are the church.