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How Can Christians Respond To The Coronavirus And Other Pandemics? – Viral Believer
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How Can Christians Respond To The Coronavirus And Other Pandemics?

We the People…

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Never, in my lifetime, has this been more valid and tested than right now.  I could take time to break this down, word for word, and write a book.  But, I would prefer to shift this beautiful Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, to the more spiritual implications that it can display to we the people in such an intense moment as we find ourselves with the pandemic called Coronavirus.

I remember on the morning of 9/11 being awoken by a phone call from my little brother, Chris.  He was stationed in Italy and his first words to me as an Airman stationed at a top security site, was “I am okay.”  Of course, I had just woken up, and I had no idea what he was referring to.  He informed me that the Twin Towers had just been hit by what we would later confirm was a terrorist attack on our Sovereignty.  As the morning progressed and the emotions of watching the Towers descend, the weight of the lives lost, and the reality of being at war started a flood of emotions that would last for several days and weeks.  

Despite the overwhelming emotions of anxiety, fear, uncertainty, gloom, powerlessness, guilt, and anger, I saw an America rising from the dust of Manhattan and covering our nation that I had never witnessed.  From first responders to churches, to nurses, and businesses, the American people went from their every day, self-absorbed lives (and that isn’t an insult), to a selfless, unified nation of people with one cause…to find our common enemy and “secure the Blessings of Liberty” once again.

We The People Must Turn To God

Today we find ourselves once again shocked out of our reality as a divided nation and into the fight of a common enemy.  Much like the perpetrators of 9/11, the COVIC-19 is covert and unable to be easily detected.  But this enemy can’t be hunted down; it hasn’t centered itself on Americans but on mankind.  And, most of all, it is completely invisible to the naked eye.  Those same emotions I had on 9/11 have been rapidly returning.  The major difference between the emotions 18 years ago and today, is that I know that we the people will once again rise to the occasion and “love one another” in a unified front.

This time, however, our common enemy requires something far beyond our physical or military might.  For this reason, I am convinced that “we the people” must turn to a power greater than ourselves in order to see both personal victory and victory as a nation and a species.  In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God says to his children,

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

First, let me point out something very important about this verse.  In order to apply this to the United States, we have to make sure that we pay very close attention to the first three words, “if my people.”  God is not talking to every U.S. citizen.  God is not talking to every human on earth.  God is specifically speaking to you and me, followers of Jesus.  So, as you read and pray remember that this is about you and Jesus.  This is about believers coming together with a unified voice before our Father.  This is about all of us humbling ourselves, setting our hearts right with our heavenly Father, giving up our personal sinful and selfish desires in exchange for the heart of the Father for the human race.  

Is Jesus Concerned About The Coronavirus?

No one is more concerned about the Coronavirus than Jesus himself.  While I don’t have all the answers here (and I am sure one question is why God is allowing this), I can assure you that we live in a fallen world where bad things happen and God is still near.  I often say that one of the promises of God that is so under-referenced is when Jesus said, “In this life, you will have trouble.”  Jesus did not leave us in the dark that Coronavirus (and Smallpox, Spanish Flu, and so on) would one day come at us.  What he did assure us of though was “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

As believers, we get to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  He clearly tells us to “cast all our anxieties on him.”  I am asking you as a fellow believer to take advantage of this time that you have been stripped of all control, this time when you have chosen to submit to the authorities above you.  I want you and I to “humble yourself and pray.”  I want all of us to show our fellow Americans that as believers “we the people” will use our superpower of “if my people” to intercede with all earnest for peace, healing, and unity.  That we can humbly come before God and plea for the healing of our land and the lands of our neighbors.  And, I have this promise to stand on that our Father will “hear our cry and heal our land.”  

Pastor Duke Taber
Pastor Duke Taber

Pastor Duke Taber

All articles have been written or reviewed by Pastor Duke Taber.
Pastor Duke Taber is an alumnus of Life Pacific University and Multnomah Biblical Seminary.
He has been in pastoral ministry since 1988.
Today he is the owner and managing editor of 3 successful Christian websites that support missionaries around the world.
He is currently starting a brand new church in Mesquite NV called Mesquite Worship Center, a Non-Denominational Spirit Filled Christian church in Mesquite Nevada.