One Thing We Christians Could and Should Do

I was reading from Proverbs 13 this morning and verse 3 says, “ He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.” These days, this spiritual truth seems to apply to our physical world as well. Wash your hands and watch what you put in your mouth was great advice from mom and great advice from the CDC!

With the pandemic, (let’s call it the plague) of the  coronavirus upon us, it might be time to reflect  on past plagues in the Bible. God consistently used plagues to get our attention. He sent the ten plagues to Egypt to get Pharaoh’s attention.  Years later, He would speak  through the prophet Amos and say, “I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; Your young men I killed with a sword, Along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me," Says the LORD. (Amos 4:10)

Given the state of our nation (and yes, even the church) with its disregard for the sanctity of life, the sanctity of sex, and the sanctity of marriage, and a whole bunch of other sins, (see Romans 1: 26-32 for more) this passage from Amos could well apply to us today.

Is God trying to get our attention? Is He calling us to return to Him and His ways? I think this is one area in which we Christians can respond to the present crisis. We can get on our knees and pray much like Daniel did in Daniel Chapter 9.

“This disaster has come upon us, yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.  Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us. We have sinned, and we have done wickedly.  O Lord according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let all Your anger and Your fury be turned away. We do no present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies, O Lord hear! O Lord forgive! O Lord listen and act!

There is certainly more we can do in Christ-like fashion to deal with this crisis, but this prayer of confession and repentance would be a good place for all of us to start.