If three months ago someone told you people would get into literal fights over it; you wouldn’t have believed them would you?
But nonetheless it’s happening right now. But I don’t believe this is a world gone mad. I believe it’s something else.
It’s a world gripped by fear. As westerners we have become self-reliant. We have become the masters of our own destinies, and in doing so we have taken up God’s role in our lives.
The current predicament is revealing we believe that life is all about “me”. This is fear outworking, because the god we have created as god of our lives (ourselves), now feels powerless and out of control in the face of crisis.
Paul encourages Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7, that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
I think that’s what’s needed most right now, a sound mind. A sound mind understands two things.
This isn’t the time to fight over what we need; this is the time to band together as community and support one another.
Sure, be wise and ensure you have supplies. But hoarding a year’s supply of toilet paper isn’t wisdom, it’s fear and gluttony!
If you have surplice of something, offer it to your neighbour. The other thing a sound mind understands, is that God is with you and for you.
It may not feel or seem like it, but God is for you. Psalm 91 91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Dwelling in the shelter of the Most High looks like turning to God in prayer. It looks like worshipping Him when the supermarket aisles are empty, or when we hear of new cases, and when our hearts are filled with fear and anxiety.
And it’s reminding ourselves of God’s promises to us. And the promise that follows the dwelling in the shelter of the Most High is: 5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. What won’t come near you? The sense of fear! The sense that you’ve been left alone in the dark; that the world as you know it is going to end, that you won’t be able to support your family; the sense that there is no hope.
Coronavirus may be inflicting fear, but God is intending to use it as an opportunity for you, for I, for us, to discover hope.
Rob Wiltshire, Epicentre Church
7°C