This whole COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the hearts and lives of billions of people around the globe.
At the time of this post, there are 375,458 confirmed cases and 16,411 deaths around the world. That’s a 4.37% global death rate of this highly contagious virus that we didn’t even realize existed until it was already too late.
The world is on lock down and people are panicking, not only from what they don’t know about this pandemic, but from what they’ve come to know about it over the last few months.
We’ve learned a lot in recent days as our world has been turned upside down. Important lessons that change the trajectory of our lives in a myriad of ways.
Here are 10 lessons the Coronavirus and social distancing have taught us:
- We are frail human beings who live in desperate and constant dependency upon Almighty God – whether we acknowledge Him or not. There is nothing we can do about what is happening in our world right now. Our lives are in God’s hands and we are dependent upon Him to either Sovereignly eradicate the virus or enable someone to develop a cure, vaccine, or treatment for this thing.
- Each breath is a gift. Each day is a blessing. And we shouldn’t take either for granted. As Solomon proclaimed – life is truly but a vapor and life, as we know it, can come to a screeching halt in a blink of an eye.
- God is the only Constant we can rest in and rely upon. Nothing is guaranteed and nothing stays the same. We know that’s true, but we often live life as though so much that we depend upon is guaranteed and that somehow everything will stay the same. It’s not and it won’t. In an ever-changing world we can trust in our unchanging God.
- We need each other. God created us for community and social distancing has made us much more aware of just how much we really and truly need each other. The need for human touch and human interaction is real. One of the many blessings we won’t take for granted again is the blessing of each other.
- Church is something believers get to do. The gift of gathering together with the saints is a blessing that God has given us. Perhaps believers who think going to a local church is something they “have” to do have learned that it’s actually something “get” to do. The local church is a blessing – not a burden.
- We should live out the Great Commission with an urgency. Many Christians sense an urge to reach the lost and teach the saved, but they lost the urgency to do so. May this pandemic instill an urgency in our hearts to do what we were saved to do…know Him and make Him known.
- We waste a lot of time. God calls us to redeem the time for the days are evil. We all have 24 hours in every day. We need to busy ourselves with fulfilling what He has called us to do. Reach the lost. Teach the saved. Love the world with the love of Jesus. Let’s stop scrolling our days away on Facebook and Instagram and start redeeming the time God has given us on this planet.
- God created His creation to adapt. Perhaps you’ve noticed how we adapt to our circumstances and our environment when life throws us a curve ball. That’s because God has equipped us to adapt. More importantly, He enables us to adapt well and make the most of each situation when we depend upon Him.
- The best and the worst tend to come out in people when a crisis happens. People prove who they are and what they believe when things get tough. One reaches out to help those in need while the other hordes for his own use. Some people show they are givers. Others reveal they are takers.
- God is merciful, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. The fact that God hasn’t obliterated this rebellious generation that has turned its back on Him and rejected His love that was demonstrated on the cross when He gave His only Son to die a substitutionary death for each and every one of us, is an incomprehensible display of mercy and grace. Why people reject such great love is beyond me. But God loves us with a relentless love and wants all to be saved. Times like these remind us that in a moment, this world could end. In a moment, God could wipe us all off this planet. But He still beckons every wayward heart… come home.
There are so many more lessons we can learn from and through this pandemic. Lessons many of us may have known before, but somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten them.
Today, be encouraged. He has you here during this season for a specific reason.
The most important reason is because He wants you to be eternally His – to be forgiven of your sins – to be saved – and to experience what it is to have a new heart and a new life and an eternal relationship with Jesus.
And once you know that you know Him, He wants you to fulfill His primary will for your life… to know Him and to make Him known.
If you don’t, would you give your life to the One who gave His life for you? Really? What are you holding on to that’s worthy your eternal soul?
Eternally His,
Steph
Phil 3:7-14
P.S. What lessons would you add to the list? How can I pray for you today?