Prayer in a Pandemic: Part One

Social Distancing from Each Other, Drawing Near to God

A global pandemic calls God’s church to prayer. On Sunday, March 15, a National Day of Prayer was held regarding the ongoing pandemic that we currently face in our nation. As we face uncertainty about health, jobs, and the immediate future, large numbers of believers in communities and on social media are choosing prayer over paranoia, prudence over panic.

As the spread of the coronavirus touches more lives, shuts down more events, shelters more people in their homes, and awakens more people to the fact that this is real, churches have been challenged to consider both the issues facing corporate worship and how best to minister to the vulnerable. This is indeed a time to remember that prayer serves as the unceasing and appropriate response of believers.

S.D. Gordon observed, "You can do more than pray after you pray, but you cannot do more than pray until you pray." We should be listening to healthcare experts. We should be practicing recommended sanitizing practices, social distancing, and quarantine when necessary. But as God’s children, we do all these practices on the solid foundation of prayer.

In uncertain times, we remember that prayer is far more than a contemplative religious practice. God truly hears our prayers! We aren’t the first to face times like these. We can look to the church in the book of Acts for wisdom; they faced intense persecution, famine, and a litany of ministry issues, all of which they met on their knees.

Prayer serves as the natural foundation of the Spirit's work in Acts. Over the next four articles I want to highlight features about prayer that we see in the Acts. The first thing I want you to see is that the church was birthed in prayer. Acts 1:14 tells us “All …

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