National Day of Prayer - Coronavirus Edition

On this National Day of Prayer, as on any day, actually, we are called to seek the Lord - to bring our requests before Him, to intercede for our nation, and to cry out for His Spirit to move in our midst.
Isaiah 55 states:
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord.

We are invited to come into God's presence, before what the book of Hebrews calls "the throne of grace."  Jesus tells us to "seek first" the Kingdom of God.  We have been brought into a relationship with Him and are partners who are empowered by the Spirit of God to fulfill His mission.  In prayer, we gain a greater understanding of what He wants to do and how He will use His people to do it. When we are in right relationship with Him, we can be prepared to hear and heed what He has to say to us and live it out.

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We can gain a sense of what the Lord wants to do in our lives from Hosea chapter 6, where we can
read:
1 Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.
3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

This National Day of Prayer is certainly not what you would consider to be the norm, and certainly people have stepped up to participate in alternative prayer efforts instead of the in-person gatherings that have marked this day.  Faith Radio has been presenting prayers from a variety of church and ministry leaders, and that will continue on The Meeting House.

We continue to pray concerning the Coronavirus, and desire to see God's will accomplished through this crisis.  Obviously, we pray for an end to the harmful effects of the virus and pray it would be eradicated.  And, we continue to remember those who are ill, as well as those who have lost their lives.

When will things be "back to normal?"  Or, will we experience a "new normal?"  A Gallup survey indicates that the views of Americans are somewhat scattered regarding a move toward normalcy.  About a fifth of those surveyed recently said that they, according to the summary on the Gallup website "are ready to return to normal right now."  But, around a third are willing to wait, saying that "they would return to their activities once the number of new cases of coronavirus in their state declines significantly."

That leaves just over four-in-ten that are really willing to wait - the summary says:

...31% say they would return to normal life once there are no new cases in their state; and 12% say they will return to their day-to-day activities once a vaccine has been developed.

The analysis states:

Two-thirds of Americans fall into the two camps that gauge their return to normalcy based on their state's progress in decreasing new cases to some degree -- but each of these camps has shrunk since Gallup's early April measure. Meanwhile, each of the two absolutist camps has expanded over the course of the month. The percentage of Americans who say they are ready to get back to normal routines right now is now up eight percentage points since early April. The percentage of those who won't return until a vaccine is developed is up five points.

The Gallup summary further notes that:

...Americans' varied ideas about the timing of a return to normalcy illustrate the competing narratives emerging of caution versus immediacy, and the murkiness of which approach leaders and Americans themselves should emphasize.

Most see their state's reports of new cases as the true barometer, but there isn't an agreed-upon measure of how much progress a state would need to show before things can go back to normal. Meanwhile, growing factions of Americans are not basing their readiness on their state's progress in reducing new infections, but are opting either for a "right now" approach or a wait for a vaccine that still may be a long way off.

These are uncertain times, yet we can turn to the Lord, who is our rock and refuge, the One who is in control when we recognize that we are not.  On this National Day of Prayer, we can ask the Lord to turn hearts toward Himself - I believe the sensitivity to the message of the gospel is currently enhanced, and we are seeing incredible responses to the online outreach of churches and ministries.

A Christian Post article reported on how one particular ministry is seeing great response.  David Jeremiah, who is heard on Turning Point weekday mornings at 6:00 on Faith Radio, is quoted as saying: “The church is alive and well and maybe more responsive now that I can ever remember except for the possible exception of 9/11,” adding, “What we've learned from all of this is God doesn't need a building for there to be a church.”  Dr. Jeremiah said that 90,000 people viewed his church's worship service online on Easter Sunday, with 600 people receiving Christ.

The pastor said, “I'm preaching right now to more people than I have ever preached to my life," and indicated that a recent video on COVID-19 and Bible prophecy yielded over a million views.  The article goes on to say:

“We've never had anything on YouTube get that kind of traction,’” he said. “When everything in which we have trusted is taken away and we are left with ourselves, we have to ask the hard questions. ‘If this is it, what happens to me now?’ There’s a renewed interest in the Gospel and a desire to know what the Bible has to say.”

“Is this the beginning of a revival? This may not be a revival in the truest sense of the Great Awakening, but I believe we are seeing an online revival.”

We can recognize that the future is uncertain.  Some are ready to return to normal, others are willing to wait, according to Gallup - until cases of Coronavirus significantly decline or new cases disappear, or until a vaccine is developed.  That, of course, could take some time.  But, we can concentrate on what God wants to do right now, today.  We know that He is moving, and He is calling His people to seek Him, to call to Him - and to grow in Him. We don't have to wait to seek His face; we can do that today, on the National Day of Prayer, anticipating His answers and direction for us.