COVID-19 is an Opportunity

by Apr 1, 2020

As more and more coronavirus news, jokes, criticisms, and retweets come into my mental inbox, a couple of things have become obvious to me: First, I’ve noticed that many Christians are afraid. We live in a climate of fear, exacerbated by the constant feed of social media and news. Second, this fear often results in a reaction. How many of us heard a month ago that the coronavirus is a myth propagated by the news media? I had my initial doubts, I’ll confess. And now there are people suggesting darkly that this is some sort of threat to Christianity, that this is all a plot to shut down our churches.

Don’t get me wrong: I think these are dangerous days. We must fight for our spiritual lives and refuse to relax. But the danger is not as shallow as simply not being able to meet physically. Hysteria cannot dominate our lives. How shall we overcome the unbelieving worldview and greet every day with energy and faith? We can follow the faithless in fits of anxiety or we can faithfully follow Him in “reconciling the world to Himself.” The coronavirus may seem to be a bane but God has a thrilling mission for his people in this.

I know many of you have been creatively engaging in gospel-sharing, so I’d love to hear your ideas. Here are some that I came up with. This crisis can and will be used for the good of the Kingdom we are a part of!

  1. Make friends! People are valuing relationships more than ever, so learn to connect with your neighbors in new ways. Our neighborhood is connected through the NextDoor app, where our family learned of new opportunities, including a new YouTube encouragement channel that our neighbor started. So we began recording family singing videos for his channel and for others. In a time of uncertainty such as now, it is paramount that we relationally bond with others, despite the necessary precautions which come with something as devastating as this virus.
  2. Be intoxicated with faith. Let everyone around know that you don’t fear COVID-19 or even death itself, though you are careful to show your love for your neighbor by following the rules to keep the virus at bay.
  3. Find people who are vulnerable, like the sick and elderly, and offer to bring supplies to them so they don’t have to go shopping.
  4. Be there for our Christian brothers and sisters who have chosen to stay in the countries where they were ministering instead of coming back here. They need our support and encouragement. Many of them have been under stay-at-home orders and feel more isolated than ever.

With all of this extra time we who are unemployed have, let’s use it to pray for spiritual victories to be won. The devil “wanted to use this for evil,” but God will use it for good! Our organization and many others are continuing to support church-planting efforts around the world. Now is not the time to retreat but to pray for spiritual powers to be broken and the gospel to break through in more areas of the world, particularly those places where much of the unreached live!

God give you much encouragement as you continue engaging in the Mission for the Messiah and His Kingdom!

About Elijah:

Elijah Lloyd is a CCM Global board member with a love for evangelism and a desire to engage the church in local and foreign missions. He is also a co-editor of Think Truth, a blog created to push this generation of Christian young people to think more and better about their beliefs.