COVID-19 Restrictions—Oppression or Opportunity?

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:13-17)

Are we living in uncertain times? That depends on your perspective. From God’s perspective, no times are uncertain. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, our perspective should be no different than any other season of life if we are resting in His providential care.

COVID-19, like many other diseases throughout history, is nothing new under the sun. Yet, due to its global threat, factoring in its unknown elements and the restrictions that have come with it, fear has settled into hearts far and wide. Fear causes us to feel as though we are being oppressed and losing supposed ‘rights’ that are being taken from us. Most often, our feelings are not based on reality or truth. Having its roots in pride, fear causes us to focus on what is happening to us and how it affects us. If we, as Christians, are anxiously looking around, wringing our hands, and buying a lifetime supply of toilet paper and rice, we need to stop and ask ourselves what is really going on in our hearts. Having laid down our lives in full submission trusting the Lord Jesus Christ in all things, what makes March 2020 any different as it relates to our ultimate purpose? I would challenge you to see this pandemic as a time of perhaps unprecedented opportunity for furthering the gospel and fulfilling your greatest purpose. That purpose is to glorify the One who controls all things.

Fear shackles us to the world and our flesh. Living in the Spirit, we are free in Christ to walk in faith as His beloved children! Paul told Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and a sound mind. I memorized this Scripture early in my walk because I tend to be a fearful person. Fear is sin, and its bondage constrains our hearts with shackles far more binding than those used in any physical prison on earth. Paul said that it was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, we are to stand firm and not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1) The freedom he talks about is a freedom to do what is right, what glorifies the Lord. It is not a freedom to do what we want when and how we want to do it. That may be the ‘American’ way, but it is not the way of the Kingdom. People who walk in the flesh don’t like restraints and restrictions. Anything that binds the human will is kicked against as violently as an animal instinctively struggles to get free from its cage. Resigned to go with the flow, but unaccustomed to having to do without, many are putting their focus on running to the grocery store to make their cages more comfortable as they ride out the storm (at the expense of others). As women, we work hard at making our homes a haven for those we love and cherish most in this world. It is a worthy ministry that glorifies God. So, how could being constrained to our homes with our families ever feel like prison? The greatest agony to those imprisoned is to be separated from loved ones. It’s what makes prison, prison!

I don’t want to diminish the fact that people everywhere are facing severe trials and tribulations. People are sick, dying, being economically challenged, and suffering loss in a multitude of different ways. However, the Bible tells us that trials and tribulations should not take us by surprise. 1 Peter 4 says that we should not be surprised by trials which come upon us for our testing. For the Christian, trials always have a good purpose. We can rest in that truth. We can know that He is working all things in our lives for our good and His glory. God is no less in control today than He was in March of 2019 or any other year.

This pandemic could be viewed as a global trial. Why is that so significant in the light of the gospel? When troubles hit us individually, we are tempted to believe that the things that concern us are far more severe than what others around us are experiencing. And, we turn our eyes inward instead of turning our eyes onto the One who holds our future in His hands. In our present circumstances, the world is looking for answers. When the church, as one body around the globe, stands strong in faith it will soon be obvious who trusts the Sovereign God of the universe and who does not. Together, the glory we ascribe to God while He has the attention of the whole world, is a rare occasion.

Part of our fallen nature is pride. Pride forgets God focusing only on what the flesh wants. In the busyness and distractions of life, we can easily get caught up in living for ourselves, forgetting our purpose. The roots of pride grow deep within all of us and every sin is an offshoot of it. Because we will always be dealing with pride to some extent, we must fight hard against it in all its forms; and we are able to do so through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit who is working in us. Proud people need a proper perspective—and, wake-up calls tend to focus our eyes on the truth. We are called to be humble, and at times we need to be humbled. Humility is willingly, dependently submitting to God. That humility obediently walks in His ways and fears Him alone. When we know that God is our life, we can embrace every trial from His hand for our good and His glory.

When this is over, before the next storm clouds hover over us and we begin to drift into believing our lives belong to us, we must look back at COVID-19 and remember. Moses warned the Israelites who had wandered in the wilderness for forty years how God had cared for them. His purpose in their hardships was to humble them and to test them so that they would know what was in their hearts, whether they would keep His commandments or not. They had learned to trust God for their most basic needs. If you have not been blessed with a major trial in your life that causes you to trust in this way, Beloved, you may be struggling right now. But, take heart, you can learn that lesson today! We are not in any way self-sufficient. We never have been. Our great God is the basic source of life, and He will provide for our every need. Our wants are not always what we need or what is best for us. Every mother can look back at a time growing up when she wanted something desperately. Over the years, as she matured, she could clearly see how that thing would not have been the best thing for her at the time. And, that gave her wisdom as a parent over her own children. God’s wisdom is perfect. He knows our greatest need is that we would grow up to be holy like Jesus Christ. Everything else falls in line under that one grand purpose. And, He is working that in us even, and sometimes especially, in trials.

 I, for one, am excited that the year 2020 has given us a wake-up call that is forcing us to get clarity in our priorities putting our focus where it belongs. It would be wise in this season of COVID-19 to turn our eyes upward, then outward as we look for those providential opportunities to lay down the lives we so vigilantly and sinfully try to protect and control—instead, ministering to others in need around us.