Early 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading across the world. With hundreds of thousands of cases worldwide by mid-March, millions of people are quarantining themselves while life as we know it seems at a standstill as many restaurants and businesses are closed and people are distancing themselves from friends and loved ones.
Where do diseases come from?
Not from God; Diseases come from the devil, the liar, accuser and thief. The devil steals our health. The devil wants to destroy the sheep and slaughter them; God protects his sheep.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (Jesus in John 10:10; NIV)
The devil sends diseases
If you read carefully about Job, the story of suffering in the Bible, you will notice that the illness that affected Job was not sent by God. The devil asks God to take Job’s health; and God allows it, but does not send the disease itself; the devil then sends Job the terrible sores: “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.” (Job 2:6-8; NIV)
Diseases come from your enemy, the devil; not from God, your friend. Jesus didn’t make a single person sick; Jesus healed them all. Whoever relies on God can know that they are safe and protected; no matter what may happen in the world around us.
The Devil’s Strategy
Does that mean you can walk around in the coronavirus pandemic areas without any hygienic protection and without precautions? Of course not.
The devil always wants to create confusion. His strategy hasn’t changed since he tried these same tactics on Jesus around 2,000 years ago. The devil, referencing God’s protection (from Psalm 91, Verses 11 + 12), suggested that Jesus should plunge from the highest part of the temple wall, knowing that God would protect Him after all. But the answer from Jesus? “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Matthew 4:7; NIV).
God gives us protection and understanding. Use common sense and rely on God’s protection
In a blizzard with negative temperatures, we cannot go out in our underwear, spend the morning outside in the garden and think that God would protect us from getting a cold.
We cannot drive 100 mph in a 35 mph zone and tell us ourselves: ‘It doesn’t matter. God will protect me.’
God gave us our minds and common sense. We should use it. Of course, also with regard to our health. Knowing that God is always protecting and guiding us.
But instead of becoming fearful, like sheep without a shepherd, we need to keep our focus on our God who is protecting us from the evil one, and spend time seeking His helpful, strengthening presence through conversations, prayers and reading the Bible.
Do not be afraid of COVID-19
Are you afraid of coronavirus? Do not be afraid of “the pestilence” that rages, even if people around you are sick and dying. Trust the loving protection of your heavenly Father.
“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” (Psalm 91:5-11; KJV)
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