We’re living in a truly trying time in history. Since early 2020’s, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused many to question their faith and has given disbelievers grounds to ridicule and poke fun at Christians and Christianity. “Where is your God now?” they ask, as churches are forced to close their doors.
It is the same question they asked Jesus as they mocked Him on the Cross of Calvary. But God was right there. and He is right here in the middle of it all. If Jesus wanted, he could have called down angels from heaven to destroy all of His persecutors. But it was not nails that held Jesus to the Cross, and it was not helplessness that made Him endure what He endured on the cross. It was His love for you and me.
When Jesus was fasting in wilderness, the devil tempted Him by saying, “Cast yourself down the mountains, for it is written that God will give His angels charge over you.” But Jesus answered and said, “it is also written, ‘thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to a test’.”
Today, many Christians are putting God to a test. There is a story of a pastor in the United States who played with a venomous snake saying the power of God will protect him from the snake’s venom. Unfortunately, he was bitten and died later. If he had remembered, as Jesus did, the scripture, “do not put the Lord they God to a test,” then he probably might have done better.
And that’s what we, as Christians, need to remember today. That we must be, above all things, be wise in the eyes of God. And we must not put God to a test. We must take all precautionary measures to protect ourselves from the deadly virus that is circulating in the world today.
Today, there are people going around boldly sniffing the open air, and saying, “I’m protected by God.” The Son of God Himself refused to put His Father to a test, but sadly, mortal human beings are.
Today, many Christians are complaining. Unfortunately, some are losing their faith in God just as the children of Israel did when they were being chased by Pharoah’s army. They said, we trapped between the sea and the enemy. But when you serve the true God, when you think you are going to die, that’s when you are going to live. Just as God parted the red sea for his people to walk through, so today, God will make a way where there seemed to be no way. And just when you thought you were going to die, that’s when you are going to live. For we, as Christians are not promised eternal life in this present evil world, but in the next life where there will be no death, suffering, sickness or coronavirus. As it is written, “those who believe in Jesus shall not see death. Though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
And it is this glorious future that we Christians so fervently hope in.
The Covid-19 pandemic is indeed a trying time for Christians all over the world. But it is written, “the refining pot for silver, and the furnace for Gold, but God tries the hearts” Let us remember that this is a time for God to test our faith, and not a time for us to test God.
In closing, let us remember that this too shall pass, as it is written in the Book of Isaiah, “Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.”
