6 Ways COVID-19 Shows How Desperately the World Needs God

1. The World Needs Jesus’s Example of Love

Nearly six months into life dictated by COVID and I’m not feeling all that loving.

Things are starting to grate on my nerves, I’m agitated and easily frustrated. As my husband and I navigate ministry we see the same is true of our church family. We’re watching people struggle, we’re struggling.

We’re watching the levels of frustration rise, and experiencing life in a pressure cooker. We feel it in our home, in our church and in our community.

As I see marriages suffering, families aching, churches struggling and our nation being torn apart I can’t help but see that God’s love is the only remedy. God's love is the only thing that will allow us the space to grieve what we've lost, and to bring comfort to those hurting around us.

This may sound like an idealistic solution, but for the body of Christ this should be our first response.

For those of us who call ourselves “believers” we should apply 1 Corinthians 13:1 to our hearts and actions: “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

Every single day we get to ask the question, “What does Love require of me?”

The requirement of love might not be what we’d expect, it may surprise and possibly even change us, it may shape and form us. Today, let’s let God’s love rest upon us and let’s allow that love to inform and transform us.

Related: Listen to Our Free Podcast: Christians in a Time of Coronavirus with Dan Darling:

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2. The World Needs True Joy

Recently I shared with a mentor how much I’ve been struggling in my role as a parent. I’ve been racked with Mom-guilt, I’ve felt overwhelmed and unprepared to show up for my children well. I’ve gone to bed more times than I can count in the last six months feeling a level of regret. I’ve allowed the sheer weight of life to steal my joy.

My mentor, wise friend that she is, said that right now joy doesn’t necessarily feel natural, nonetheless, we need to fight for joy. Joy can be as simple as baking cookies with your children and dropping them off to the neighbors.

Joy can be found in a beautiful sunset or a summer storm. Joy is so much more simple than we often allow it to be. As the psalmist wrote “…weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”

Each new day that we are given we have an opportunity to practice joy despite our circumstances. Some of us are suffering greatly. Some of us have lost jobs and family members this year.

Some of us are struggling to raise and educate children, work, and maintain a healthy family life. Some of our marriages are strained. Some of us are coping with mental health issues.

There is a very long list of struggles for many people presently, however, if we approach each trial with the joy of the Lord we may also be able to experience peace in the midst of suffering.

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3. The World Needs the Peace of God

More than anything else lately I’ve just wanted to experience peace, peace in parenting, in marriage, in ministry, and in my own soul. I want to feel peaceful internally and for that peace to be exhibited externally. I want to be a force of peace to those in my community, and to inspire peace within my home.

Unfortunately, as I’ve discovered, I cannot self-help or self-care my way to long-lasting consistent peace, COVID-19 has driven that point home. True peace comes only from God and is embodied in the personhood of Jesus Christ. As we put our trust in Jesus the outcome is a peace that transcends all understanding. (Philippians 4:7)

Individually, we can experience this peace through several daily practices. As we read the word of God we can better understand what Biblical peace looks like. As we practice and deeper our prayer lives we can encounter peace through the Holy Spirit.

As we continue life-long spiritual formation—the process through which we open our hearts to a deeper connection with God—we can become people who embody peace. Christ-followers have an opportunity to reflect Biblical peace in this world here and now.

As we become more like Christ we will become progressively more unflappable, the whims and wiles of life this side of heaven will not break us.

Peace is possible through He who is peace. Peace is within reach and as the world continues to spin out of control we must hold fast to that peace.

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4. The World Needs a Little more Patience, Kindness and Goodness

I want answers and I want them now. I want action and solutions. I’m fed up with all the conjecture. I bet I’m not alone. Maybe we’re in the same boat and, if you’re anything like me, you’re past the point of exhaustion. I’m tired. You’re tired. We’re all tired.

It just so happens that when we’re tired we tend to run out of patience. Think about any time you’ve lost your patience lately… were you tired?

As we deal with the mental fatigue of life during COVID-19 a fair assessment might be that we’ve hit a wall. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard friends say, “I’m just over it.” I echo that.

Not being able to live life like we're used to, not being able to connect with the people we love in ways that we used to, not being able to leave our house without having to remember our masks...it's a lot.

If we run out of patience, kindness and goodness are quick to follow. We’re out of patience so we snap at people. Our fuse is short so we respond critically rather than with grace. We lose our patience so we snap at our children, our spouses, our colleagues.

We lash out on perfect strangers on the internet and categorize people without ever having a conversation. We disagree with someone and with one fell swoop write them off forever.

COVID-19 seems to have amplified this. We need a shift, rest for the weary, a restoration of patience and the return to kindness and goodness. This is a wakeup call, and this type of restitution can only be found in Christ.

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5. The World Needs Faithfulness

It’s easy to give in to anxiety or fear as COVID numbers continue to climb, racial tensions continue to escalate, political divides to deepen and lines to be drawn in the sand. There is disunity within the church as well as outside of it.

In 1 Corinthians 1:10, the Apostle Paul addresses the issue of unity to the early church at Corinth writing, "I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought."

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is a confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Within the church the need for unity is paramount, this does not mean that we agree with each other on every subject or are of the exact same mindset on a particular topic, but what it does mean is that we meet on the foundation of faith in Christ.

Our hope as believers is not ultimately in the hand of organizations, political parties or even our pastors. Our hope is in Christ alone and on that foundation of faith in Christ we are transformed.

This transformation needs to be visible to the outside world, we must live a life on display. The world is in desperate need of faithfulness, and perhaps Christ-followers can be conduits of the faith.   

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6. The World Needs a Serious Dose of Gentleness and Self-Control

As tensions continue to rise our ability to practice gentleness and self-control is becoming increasingly more difficult. It’s hard to have a spirit of gentleness and to practice self-control without first having love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness.

If we are filled to the brim with love, if peace resides within us and we have developed a strong practice of patience, then kindness and goodness will follow, or as the psalm of David declares in Psalm 23:6, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

If we have a deep-seeded faith that is being consistently nourished through the spiritual practices of prayer, time in the Word, reflection and community, then being gentle in spirit and having self-control can come easier.

I have seen firsthand people completely transformed by their faith. Anger can recede, frustration can be reduced and peace can come take residence when we allow God to take the reins of this life.

As God becomes bigger in us our capacity for gentleness and self-control can increase. We don’t need to dignify every insult with a response, we don’t need to attend every fight we’ve been baited by.

We don’t need to blast people on social media or belittle others. Instead we have the opportunity to lead others by showing up in relationship, to be gentle and kind, and persistent as ever in love and faithfulness.

As I’ve heard it prayed so many times in my life, “less of me God, more of you.”

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