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People in our world are experiencing a lot of fear and worry right now as we watch the coronavirus spread and impact each and every one of us. But why is all of this happening? What is the ultimate cause of covid-19? And why do we experience these powerful feelings of fear and worry? What does the Bible say about covid-19?
Throughout history people have struggled to understand why bad things happen. The Bible answers this question for us. The Bible tells us that God created a perfect and good world. There was no sickness and disease in this world, people never experienced pain, guilt, shame, fear, or worry, and they had a perfect relationship with God Himself.
But people chose to doubt God and to disobey and dishonor God. All of us disobey and dishonor God in our words, actions, thoughts, and attitudes. This is called sin. Romans 3:23 says that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. When we do this, our relationship with God is broken. There are consequences for disobeying and dishonoring our Creator and Life-giver. God put a curse on this world. Death, sickness, disease, pain, suffering, guilt, fear, and worry entered our world. Covid-19 along with all disease, sickness, and suffering is a result of sin. Covid-19 is just one of many problems sin has brought. By our actions we have become enemies of the One who is in control of the world and we have good reason to be fearful and worried.
The Bible not only tells us why bad things happen and where they come from, it also tells us that God is kind, good, merciful, and loving. Because these things are true of God, He made a way for our relationship with Him to be restored and for us to be free from fear and worry.
God Himself came as a human. His name was Jesus. Jesus perfectly honored and obeyed God. But Jesus experienced the pain and suffering of our world. He died a very shameful and painful death in our place. He took the punishment for our sin and experienced a broken relationship with God in our place.
Jesus promised that all who believe in Him and trust that He has indeed taken their punishment and made it possible for their relationship with God to be restored, will experience forgiveness and a restored relationship with God. Christians are the people who have chosen to believe God, have given God their allegiance, and have experienced forgiveness and restored relationship with God.
Christians can respond to covid-19 in a different way than most people do. We can have hope during the covid-19 outbreak. We know God and we know that He is in control of covid-19 (Psalm 115:3, Job 42:2). We know that God is good and loves us. He proved that He loved us when He sent Jesus to die in our place (Romans 8:31-32, Psalm 84:11-12). We know that God will use covid-19 to bring about something good in our lives, even if God’s definition of “good” is sometimes different from ours (Romans 8:28). We are not afraid of death. The Bible promises that all who believe in Jesus will one day go to heaven where they will never again experience pain, death or sadness (Revelation 21:4, Romans 8:18). We are able to have peace no matter what is happening around us (1 Peter 5:7, Isaiah 26:3, John 14:7). We are able to love and care for others during this time just as God has loved and cared for us (1 John 4:18-19, 2 Timothy 1:7).
The Bible not only gives us the reason why bad things like covid-19 happen, but it also gives us a reason to have hope during covid-19 and times of difficulty in our lives.
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