Dear You,
How are you doing during the Circuit Breaker?
When it was Chinese New Year, I thought this virus was gonna die down soon. But, it didn't. Slowly, school stopped. Then came the social isolation. We stopped physically going to church. My mom told me "I think its best that you don't meet your friends for now". Then, the Circuit Breaker happened. Today, PM Lee dropped a bomb and said non-essential food items will be closed, and that includes my BBT :’( Normal.... nothing feels normal huh?
In this season, there is no doubt that all of our lives are disrupted. As my friends said, it feels like 2020 has been put on pause. Some of us may feel joyous (WAH finally dunnid wake up at 6.20am!!), some, annoyance (WIFI why you gotta do me dirty) and others, fear. To be honest, I identify with the last group. I do not know nor understand where God’s presence fits in the midst of this virus, and overthinking about this left me shook. Beyond the new tik tok moves and finding out that I can actually cook, the one thing I learnt this period is how little I know of God and how quick I can be to doubt Him. Hence, I went searching for answers*.*People’s accounts of what they think the virus is about can be dangerous!! Discern discern discern!!
Where is God in all of these?
No one has specific answers to why God has allowed COVID-19 to happen (unless you are a prophet). However, we do have answers pointing to who God is. This is important as it relates to how we see God during such times. Do we see Him as the perpetrator? Or do we see Him still as our loving Father?
We know that our God is sovereign, righteous, holy, faithful and loving.
God is loving, as Apostle Paul said,
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”
The Lord is sovereign
“I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things”
Ok last verse for now:
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever”
For me, the last verse is especially comforting, because it tells me that the God of the Bible withstands the test of time, even till today. God is not only good when my days are good. God is still God in this season of COVID-19! And it tells me that although the Coronavirus is a “creation” of God, He continues to love us, and His plan for our salvation still stands.
In fact, we were never promised that life would be smooth sailing here on Earth. Right from the first chapter of the Bible, we were already told that the root of all suffering is sin (Gen 3:1-19), and that suffering includes COVID-19.
Suffering is a way of God telling us that there is a problem with our world, and that our broken world needs a saviour. In a way, suffering is how God shows his love for us. By bringing us to Him, through Jesus, that He may gift us eternal life. After all, if the world was perfect, we wouldn’t have a need for God, would we?
How shall we respond?
It is okay to be afraid. After all, our minds can never understand the wisdom and righteousness of our perfect God. Being a Christian does not mean we will never get hurt. Instead, our vulnerability is a way for God to be glorified. We can praise God when things are good, but praising God even when things don’t go well shows that our faith to others that our God is truly sovereign.
For me, I think the fear I had drove me back to God, and I encourage you to do the same. As the song goes, “What a Friend we have in Jesus” - likewise, bring all your fears and doubts you have before God. The LORD is a personal God, and He hears our deepest groaning and greatest misgivings. It is a time for us to turn back to God and ask for His peace and reassurance.
This period has also helped me to understand who God is a bit better. He reveals himself through so many different ways, he’s legit one-upped even a rubics cube :) Reading the Bible has helped me deepen my understanding of who God is. One of the things I read from the CWR devotional Jul/Aug 2018 that was really pivotal for my faith was “The Bible is not true because it satisfies reason, but it satisfies reason because it’s true.”
In such uncertain times, perhaps we should lay down all the thoughts that tarnish the image of God (aka your doubts about who God is), and read the Bible without our tinted glasses, and God will reveal something that you were too distracted to see before! Ok i’m done nagging hehe. To you reading this, thank you. Thanks for giving me a chance to find out who God is in this coronavirus. Let’s all engage this war against COVID-19 together (with our Bible)!
With Love: Noah