It becomes us to be humble under humbling providences.
—Matthew Henry

The providences connected to COVID-19 are humbling, whatever one’s opinions of the problems and solutions. Perhaps the greatest blessing of the pandemic is being humbled to the point of crying out in prayer to God more persistently.

I’ve counted many other blessings the Lord has given during this season personally and corporately. He’s given us a slower paced summer with more family time together. He’s increased our congregation’s appreciation for gathered worship. Since social distancing has pushed us outside, we’ve enjoyed the great outdoors more this summer than any other in recent memory. Weddings have become simpler and increasingly focused on the heart of marriage. The Lord has inspired greater creativity in us to navigate barriers to ministry. More people have heard the gospel via our livestream than ever before. I could go on. Yet, I think humble prayer by humbled people has been the most encouraging blessing from the Lord in these last five months.

The Lord promised Solomon that he would send humbling providences to drive his people to prayer:

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:13–14).

In the congregation I serve, our humbling providences at the outset of the pandemic in March motivated a daily 7:00 a.m. Zoom prayer time led by a couple of our elders. The morning prayer time continues each day for a half-hour, mostly attended by adults, but the young people have also taken up prayer as a topic and special practice in their midweek meeting; they are being humbled under God’s hand, too.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The link (URL) to the original article at Gentle Reformation is unavailable and has been removed.]