Pastoral Prayer on Occasion of the International Response to COVID-19

God, we come before You in awe of the fact that You hold the whole world in Your hands. You spoke creation into existence with mere words and You uphold the universe by the word of Your power. You are not just powerful, but You are good and in control. Every moment passes according to the council of Your will and all things are working for the good of those who trust in You. There’s no clearer place where You evidenced all of this than at the cross, where You took the greatest evil the universe has even seen and turned it for the greatest good the universe has ever encountered. You are good and in control and that’s why we trust You and are coming before You this evening.

Father, You see and know the realities surrounding the coronavirus pandemic better than we do. You have a perfect picture of what’s going on. You perfectly and exhaustively know all of the facts. But we do not. We are finite and feeble. And we see a buzz of competing claims, lots of major cancellations, and lots of fear. We see folks who believe the whole situation is blown way out of proportion and we see others who are panicked beyond belief. God, in the midst of this confusion, we know that You are in control and therefore we want to come to You because You are the only one who knows all of the facts and who has all of the power to bring true health and safety.

God, we want to begin by praying for clarity in communication and media. As the days continue on, we want to pray that the media would report responsibly and would bring clarity to the situation, not add to the confusion. God, we thank You for the journalists that have diligently reported on the situation, and we pray that those who haven’t, who have used this situation for their own gain, would cease and repent. We pray for the prevention of fear mongering and that only true and right information would be communicated.

Next, God we pray for those that have been infected with the virus. We pray for healing and rejuvenation. We pray for strength for them, particularly for those who are older or immuno-compromised. God, it’s clear to see from Your Word that You are sovereign over sickness. You controlled the plagues against Egypt and Your Son healed the sick with mere touch and words. You are a healing God, so much so that you even raise the dead to life. We pray for Your sovereign and mighty healing right now for all who are infected or exposed, whether or not they know it.

God, next we pray for the medical professionals who are working diligently to treat those who are sick. God, give them wisdom and tenderness in their treatment. Protect them so that they would not become sick. God we thank You for modern medicine. What a grace and a gift. We pray for the advancement of cures for the virus and pray for accurate prescriptions for those that have the virus. We pray that hospitals might not become overwhelmed and that the precautions taken by our nation and many organizations would allow our medical professionals to better handle their patients, both those with the virus and those with other maladies.

God, we pray for the leaders of our city, state, nation, and the nations of the world. You tell us in Your Word to pray for them and we want to do that now. Give them wisdom in their decision making. Give them decisiveness and shrewdness in their steps. We pray that they would have accurate information to base those decisions on and that their decisions would be appropriate and effective. Give them strength as they receive comments from all sides related to their responses. Their job is not an easy one and we pray for them amidst all of this.

God, we pray for the leaders of churches, including the leaders of our church here at Pleasant Valley. Give them wisdom in their steps and decisions. May we not cower from needless fear, but may we also make wise choices to protect those around us. Thank You for the technology to be able to broadcast Your word and your truth to the whole world, whether or not we can gather. Thank you that we will be gathering together this weekend as a family, but for other churches who cannot gather, thank you for the technology that allows them to hear from your Word.

Father, next we pray for those who will be financially impacted by the virus. There are many folks who are living paycheck to paycheck and their livelihoods depend upon very events and business that are being cancelled. Sustain them, Father. Support them. You tell us in Your Word that if You care for the birds and flowers of the world that You will surely care for us. May You make that evident for the folks financially impacted in this crisis.

God, next we plead to You to help hinder the plans of Satan in the midst of the crisis. Satan loves fear and confusion, but God You tell us in 2 Timothy that You have not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but of power, love, and self-control. May we sense that in these days. We have seen scheme after scheme from Satan rise up amidst the pandemic. For example, God, we’ve seen awful things like pornography companies deliberately increase the availablility of their videos and products to people who are homebound or quarantined. We’ve seen drug and alcohol abuse in light of the confusion and chaos. As isolation and fear increases, temptations to sin often arise. God, would You frustrate these plans. We pray divine judgment on those who are taking advantage of this sickness to lead people to sin. We pray that You would bring justice and would draw them to repentance that they might see the wickedness of their actions and turn to You. We know Satan stands no chance compared to You and so we pray we could see glimpses in these days of Your decisive victory over him.

God, destroy the plans of Satan. Just this week, multiple mission trips have been cancelled. In many ways, those represent many Gospel-conversations that will not happen like we expected. Those cancellations, the command to cease travel for missions worldwide by many denominations, could be used by Satan to prevent folks from hearing the Gospel. But as disheartening as that may seem, we are reminded of the many faithful missionaries You have already placed across the globe to reach the unreached. Strengthen them and give them endurance and passion in these days. Additionally, we are reminded that You don’t need our help to proclaim Your glory or Gospel. You give us the immense privilege to partner with You in telling the whole world about Jesus, but You don’t need our help. We are merely one instrument among many that You can and do use to draw people to Yourself. God, You are so powerful that You can use this virus to actually awaken people up to Your existence. When people are faced with thoughts of death, with fear, and with chaos, they are often forced to reckon with You and Your existence. May this virus be used to bring thousands upon thousands to You. God, we don’t understand all that You’re doing in this, but we pray that one day in glory, we would be able to see scores of souls who gave their life to You in all of this. God, all of this is a reminder that we are not invincible. We are feeble, small, contingent, and fragile. Only You are supreme, sovereign, all-satisfying, perfectly powerful, and totally good. Only You are worthy of all trust and praise, and so we give that to You tonight.

I want to close by praying that You would bring peace to the minds of those who feel panicked or fearful. For some, the buzz surrounding all of this can be terrifying and crippling. I pray that You would ease those fears and help us trust in You. In Ephesians, You tell us that peace isn’t a place, a medication, a doctor, or a medical cure, but a person...and His name is Jesus. Help us find our peace in Jesus tonight. You tell us in Isaiah 26 that if we keep our faith and gaze fixed on You that You will give us peace. May we keep our gaze fixed on You God. Help us not to trust in anything more than You. Help us to find our peace in You because You are worthy of all worship and the only one who can truly give us the peace we seek. You alone are totally in control. You alone are totally good. You alone are totally powerful. And You alone are the one whose very nature is love. We pray big things because we know that You are a big God. We trust You and want to exalt Your glory with our prayers and praise tonight.

In Jesus holy name we pray,

Amen