5 things Christians should be doing during the coronavirus pandemic 

The coronavirus is spreading and is already officially a global pandemic. Many things are changing around the world. How should a Christian respond to all this change?

The world has changed a lot in just a few weeks.

For most of us, the coronavirus started out as international news, a tragic thing happening elsewhere, to other people.

And then suddenly, it didn't.

It began to spread across cities, across borders, to the edge of the continents, and then across the oceans.

Now it is everywhere. There is no populated area on the planet that is not affected by the coronavirus. All nations are dealing with the infection itself or with the fear of infection. Regardless of what you personally think about the virus (ridiculous hype or apocalyptic announcement) COVID-19 is here, and it's part of your life.

The coronavirus is affecting everything. It affects the number of people you should be with, the ages of those people, and the distance that should be placed between them and you. It is affecting how companies are managed and even if those companies are open or not. It is affecting, in a deeply disturbing way, what is available on the shelves of your local supermarket.

Sports events and conventions have been canceled. Schools are on indefinite hiatus. And no one knows how long this will all last.

Christianity is not on hiatus

It is impossible to know many things at this time. How long will it be until things return to normal? We do not know. How many people will get the disease? We do not know. How many of them will die? We do not know. What impact will all this have on the world economy? We do not know. But things are not looking good.

This is what we do know:

Everyday life can change in a thousand ways, but Christians cannot stop being Christians just because they live in times full of tension. In fact, the core of your Christian faith is reflected in who you really are when times get tense.

Here are five things that Christians can (and should!) Do during the coronavirus pandemic:

1. We should be using our extra time for Bible study, prayer, and meditation.

As quarantine restrictions and recommendations continue to tighten, many of us find ourselves spending more and more time at home, perhaps even the only thing we can do. It's hard not to feel a little crazy when you're caught looking at the walls 24 hours a day, seven days a week, especially when we start running out of things to do.

How is your relationship with God these days?

"Time" is the usual excuse why we don't pray and study as much as we should. We never seem to have enough.

A deeper relationship with God will give us a greater sense of peace, a clearer perspective and a permanent sense of purpose. That's something we could all have, especially now. But what now? What happens when many of us have only time? Are we setting aside some of the time to spend talking to God and reading the pages of His Word? Are we disconnecting from the news enough to think deeply about the scriptures we are reading?

If we are doing that, the end result is a deeper relationship with God. This will give us a greater sense of peace, a clearer perspective and a permanent sense of purpose. That's something we could all have, especially now. With the closure of many of our normal occupations, we have fewer excuses for not spending that time with our Creator.

The coronavirus may have isolated us from many things, but it has the potential to draw us closer to God than ever. Will we use that time wisely?

Paul said to the Ephesians, “Watch diligently [carefully] how you walk, not as fools but as wise, making good use of the time, because the days are bad. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is ”(Ephesians 5: 15-17, emphasis added).

The days are no less bad than when Paul first wrote those words, and there is no better time to redeem time than through Bible study, prayer, and meditation.

2. We should use social media to encourage each other, rather than discuss or spread fear.

If you are on social media, then you know that anyone thinks about the coronavirus pandemic. Because it is easy to make up facts and misinterpret data, there is a lot of misinformation and a lot of arguments about what is really happening and opinions about what people should be doing.

You can participate in discussions of this type if you wish, but I am not convinced that it is of any use. Like most social media issues, you will find many passionate people with opposing views, but most of the time no one convinces anyone except those who already agree with a position beforehand.

Here is an alternative:

When Paul and Silas were imprisoned on one of their mission trips, they did something extremely curious: "But at midnight, Paul and Silas praying, they sang hymns to God; and the prisoners heard them" (Acts 16:25).

They sang and prayed. They could have been doing many other things: complaining, worrying, silently meditating, sleeping, preaching to a literally captive audience, and so on. Instead, Paul and Silas were offering prayers and hymns to God, and their fellow prisoners were listening.

You can choose to post positive, encouraging, and encouraging things, and your fellow inmates can reflect, stop, and listen. For many people, quarantine feels like a prison. Through social media, you can preach directly to your fellow inmates (at least until they "stop listening"), but it probably won't do much good. Instead, you can do what Paul and Silas did: sing and pray.

That doesn't mean putting on dark glasses or sticking your head in the sand. Coronavirus is real and, at least for some people, it can be a death sentence.

And it doesn't mean sharing literal videos of you praying and singing, either. But in a pandemic-related news feed full of panic, you can choose to be a bright spot. You can choose to post positive, encouraging, and encouraging things, and your fellow inmates can reflect, stop, and listen.

Be a singing voice, not a screaming one.

3. We should be practicing patience in the face of a new normal.

The world is different from what it was a month ago, and it is clear that it will continue to be different for a time. Different means change, and change means stress.

Living a global pandemic is going to mean dealing with at least some kind of stress, even if it's just stress caused by inconvenience.

Patience comes from knowing that all things are finally in God's hands and that He is taking care of us, regardless of the situation.

You will have plenty of opportunities to practice patience in the days and weeks ahead. Things are not going to work as we are used to, at least for a while. People are going to say and do silly and selfish things. The new laws and restrictions will make life a little more awkward and a little more difficult to navigate.

In those moments, your faith will be exposed for all to see, naked and unmistakable. What exactly are others seeing in you? How will you act?

James urges us: “My brothers, take great joy when you find yourself in various trials, knowing that the trial of your faith produces patience. But let his complete work have patience, so that you may be perfect and complete, without lacking anything ”(James 1: 2-4).

In times of stress, when your faith is tested, responding patiently takes us one step closer to where we should be as Christians. Outrage does not do that. Nor fear. Neither take advantage of others nor launch accusations.

Only patience can do that, because patience comes from knowing that all things are finally in God's hands and that He is taking care of us, regardless of the situation.

That is the type of Christian we need to be, and the Christianity that others need to see.

4. We should approach the lonely and disconnected.

God has a special place in his heart for those who lack social support. "The pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this:" writes James, "to visit the fatherless and the widows in their tribulations, and to keep themselves without spot from the world" (James 1:27).

With the coronavirus impacting the world in such a powerful way, there are many people who may need support. Who are the lonely and disconnected people you know right now, especially in the Church? What can you do for them?

A phone call or video call can mean a lot to someone who feels isolated from the world around them.

A phone call or video call can mean a lot to someone who feels isolated from the world around them. Is there someone you know who may need food or supplies but cannot (or should not) go out and get them?

5. We should extend mercy to those who panic.

I mentioned earlier that some people are going to say and do silly and selfish things, and honestly, that deserves an explanation. And here it is:

It takes more than patience to know how to interact with people in panic.

Something closer to mercy and grace is needed.

Grace is an undeserved gift. Salvation, our entry into the Kingdom of God, and the final deliverance from the payment of our sins, is offered to us through "the grace of God" (Titus 2:11). We can't win it, and we don't deserve it. It is accessible to us because (and only because) God is willing to give it to us.

Peter wanted to know how many times he was required to forgive someone who repeatedly sinned against him. "Up to seven times?" she asked Jesus (Matthew 18:21).

"I tell you not up to seven times," replied Jesus, "but up to seventy times seven" (verse 22). Then he told a parable whose central lesson comes down to this: We must learn to forgive as God forgives us. Even when people do not explicitly seek our forgiveness, Christians are expected to have a forgiveness mindset. It is a small way that we can have a character more like that of God. In other words, let's have mercy.

Many people are scared. Many of them do not know the "plan of God". They don't know what's coming and they don't know the things that have to happen on the way. The coronavirus pandemic is a sinister threat that came to them unexpectedly, and they are afraid.

The problem is that scared people can do scary, selfish, unpredictable, silly, reckless, hurtful, dangerous things, etc.… but many times they are not doing it out of badness.

What will you do when you are directly affected by the fear and panic of others?

It would be easy to get mad at them, claim them for their shortsighted and self-centered actions, and they probably even deserved it.

But being a Christian means knowing that you are not getting what you finally deserve, because God showed you His grace. When we face the fruits of fear in others, Christians have the opportunity to extend grace to others. We should say, "I am not going to complain to you in anger or respond in anger. God has forgiven me much more."

We know that God "does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3: 9). That includes whoever is possibly making our life difficult right now. These frightened people are also potential sons and daughters of God, just like us.

Coronavirus challenges Christian faith

There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right now. Life is changing in strange and uncomfortable ways. In the face of so many question marks that the world has to deal with, it is more important than ever that we, as Christians, show ourselves to be consistent and determined to “live not only on bread, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God. ”(Matthew 4: 4).

How we respond to the coronavirus crisis will show our faith, or our lack of it. It does not mean that we cannot worry about how things are going. It does not mean that we should not take precautions to stay healthy and safe. But the days and weeks to come will be filled with ample opportunities to show that the values ​​we speak of so much are the values ​​by which we truly live at all times, even in crises.

Let's stay safe. Let's stay healthy. But above all, let's stay Christian.