This season we’re living in is one full of fear, worry, and anxiety. But where does God exist in this crisis? In this video from The Urban Alternative, Pastor & Author, Dr. Tony Evans, reassures us that God was not caught off-guard by this pandemic and in fact, He is using it to draw His people back to His voice.
The Urban Alternative is a Christian Bible teaching and resource ministry founded 39 years ago by Dr. Tony Evans. They aim to spread the teaching of God’s Word through Christian media with the goal of transforming lives. They offer sermons, sermon outlines, books, prayers, Bible studies and more on topics such as Christian living, marriage, discipleship, and spiritual growth, as taught by Tony Evans.
The entire video is above, and the complete transcript is below.
These are uncertain days, aren’t they? There’s a lot of fear, worry, anxiety because we’re facing something very unique, personally, as well as nation-wide and world-wide.
This did not catch God by surprise. Nothing happens in history that doesn’t start by being allowed in eternity. Everything visible and physical is preceded by something invisible and spiritual. So if you want to understand the physical, visible, then you’ve got to be willing to investigate the invisible and spiritual. If all you see is what you see, you do not see all there is to be seen.
This virus has called attention to deeper issues. Our need for unity, the nature of the world and the conflicts that we face. It’s also brought back the need for us to serve one another and resist our selfishness. There are spiritual, underlying causes and cures.
The Bible says that God uses circumstances to speak and right now with this coronavirus, He’s screaming and He’s saying, “Pay attention to Me. Yes, you’ve got to do the things that will promote health and well-being and safety, but you’ve also got to look back to Me because I’m doing the talking here.”
When weather gets bad you check in with the weatherman because you want some more information. When life gets bad and the nation is in trouble and the world is confused, that’s time for a check in with the Deity since, Daniel 4 said, “Heaven rules earth.”
What God is trying to communicate to us through this crisis is that He wants to invite us to invite Him back into our life and into our world. He doesn’t just want to be a deity on the periphery. He wants to be centralized in our heart, in our lives, in our families, in our churches, and, yes, even in our culture.
So people are calling for prayer. People are turning on their televisions to get hope. They’re the listening to the leaders for direction when God is saying, “Listen to Me because I offer you a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a stability that transcends your uncertainty.”
This is the time, while we’re doing all the other things, to draw near to God because when He allows a crisis there is always a spiritual purpose attached to it. James 1 says it. God brings about a trial, He’s calling attention to something that you cannot see.
This virus we do not see, but we feel the effects. You don’t see God, but He wants His effect to be felt because He’s gotten our undivided attention because He’s allowed us to be in something that we can’t resolve on our own.
In the midst of this, turn to God—no matter how uncertain you feel, no matter how fearful you are. In fact, the Bible says when you get anxious that’s a signal to pray.
Well let’s call on God, not only for the cure to the virus, but to the cure to our viruses—our sin viruses, our rebellion viruses, the things that have separated us, our families, and our nation from God.
Let’s get back to the spiritual because that will have a great impact on what happens in the physical.
