Every morning we woke up we can see reports of thousands of Covid-19 +ve cases being added up. India, comparatively in a good standing in March is now notching up the status of one of the worst affected countries in the world. Even Manipur and Mizoram, proud to be covid-free States in March, has by today counted their own numbers in terms of hundreds. Even our beloved Churachandpur District has now to deal with 79 +ve cases as on 13 Jun 2020.
It really occupies our mental space, eaten up our precious times and drains our resources & energies and our economy of course. It halts our normal educational systems, enforces human boundaries between individuals in the closely knit society of ours and not the least, necessitates to replace our mass worship gatherings with the smaller ones confined within our homes and family circles. You can extrapolate many more of such odd pre-occupations the pandemic has brought about in our lives.
In such a times as this, I am reminded of the importance and the need to go back to God's protection promises. We all know the world fought the virus on medical and behavioral grounds. Social isolation and medication for a specified period of time for the infected person, quarantine measures for the suspects and mask coverings and frequent handwashings and social distancings and immunity boosting eating habits etc. New guidelines are issued almost every week by the authorities and the information relayed even up to the remotest corners in quickest times.
In Psalms 91: 9-12, God gave us a very personal promises for protection from plagues. At the same time He puts certain covenant-type conditions that are anterior to the fulfilment of His promises. The first condition is to make the Lord our refuge. The second condition is to make the Most High our dwelling place. When these promises are fulfilled - no evil will befall us, nor shall any plague come near our dwelling. You may think these promises are unrealistic, but hold on, He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways, says the Bible. I don't doubt an angel of God to be too weak not to let any evil befall us.
Here we saw a simple but inevitable condition put in place by God before we can be assured of His protection ie. to make the Lord our refuge and the Most High our dwelling place. In verse 14-15, the Bible continues to tell us - "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him". What a comforting and a personal promise from our loving God!
In emphasizing God's promises, I am not undermining the above stated Govt's strategies at all. Rather, I want to bring back to our mind that our conscious efforts should not be in vain. Many of us tend to forget the Biblical safety plans and consider the part plans laid down by the worldly Govt as the whole. And we made the mistake of becoming equals with the non-believers.
I would therefore like to conclude by saying that, at such a time as this when the world is standing together against a common enemy in covid-19, let us, as believers, once again exalt the name and the power of our living God by making Him our refuge & our dwelling place and our most loved. If we do our part in this, not only his protection but, in experiencing His love - relationship results, we are also promised additional blessings of promotion and honor in life. What a good Lord we serve! May His name be glorified for ever! Amen.
