PRAYING AGAINST CORONAVIRUS

                                                                  

Can we pray—with mountain-moving faith—for the viral pandemic to stop?

Recently, some Christian leaders have been praying against the virus pandemic that it will cease and disappear. What man is trying to achieve through prayer seems impossible. But nothing is impossible with God. After all, we are merely obeying God’s command by exercising mountain–moving faith: 

• “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:23-24). 

Are there any conditions to such powerful prayers which can move mountains (impossible obstacles, like the viral pandemic)? Sure. It is plain that whatever we ask for in prayer must be according to God’s will.

• “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5: 14-15).

Now we have to ask ourselves whether this viral pandemic is mentioned in the Bible. And, sure enough, it is explicitly mentioned in the Olivet Discourse where Jesus shared with four of his disciples what must happen at the end of this age. 

• Jesus: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21: 10-11).

Furthermore, the apostle John wrote about a similar end-time scenario, when the fourth seal opened to reveal a pale horse associated with death: 

• “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8).

Now, if it is explicitly stated in scriptures that pestilences will occur in the end-times, would there be any reason at all to pray against the virus? Answer: No. If we do so, we are praying using our own wisdom for something that is not aligned to God’s will. 

We might as well pray for world peace when scriptures say nation will rise up against nations (Mark 13:7, Luke 21:10, Rev. 6:4, Rev. 6:8.).

We might as well pray against earthquakes when scriptures say that such natural catastrophes will happen (Mark 13:8, Luke 21:11, Hebrews 12:27).

We might as well pray against famines when scriptures say that food shortages and humanitarian crises will happen (Mark 13:8, Luke 21: 11, Rev. 6:6, Rev. 6:8).

Look here; it is written clearly and unequivocally:  

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:7-8).

Before Christ returns and ushers in God’s judgment and a new kingdom, there are end-time “birth pangs” which will increase in severity and frequency as the Day of The Lord draws nearer. These birth pangs (wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences and lawlessness) are akin to severe labour pains of a mother about to give birth to a baby where the frequency and severity of uterine contractions progressively increases until the baby is pushed out from the birth canal. 

So how can we expect these end-time signs to get any better or even consider praying against them? All these earth-shaking end-time events will happen, whether we like it or not. 

                                  

  

In fact, writer of Hebrews told us that this end-time shaking will be so great that only what cannot be shaken will remain:

• “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain” (Hebrews 12:26-27).

Moral of the story: Before we pray for anything, in this instance praying for the viral pandemic to cease, we must first settle the issue, Am I praying according to God’s will? Am I praying against the will of a sovereign God who has allowed—and predetermined beforehand—these unavoidable and inescapable end-time “birth pangs” events? 

But does that mean we do not pray in times like this viral pandemic? No. We can pray for God’s protection for ourselves and others, pray for God's comfort to be upon those who have lost loved ones to the virus, pray for the welfare of the front line and relief workers, pray for our leaders and healthcare workers—for wisdom to contain and mitigate the outbreak.  

We can also humbly plead and pray that God in His mercy will shorten the course of the pandemic and ameliorate its effects. But we cannot override His sovereignty by commanding or decreeing that He stop the pandemic. God is not our butler or errand boy. Didn’t He say that pestilences such as this contagion will happen in the end times? 

What is clear is that we cannot pray against something (read pestilence) which is explicitly stated in scriptures (an unavoidable end-time event) and order it to cease.
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