Take the Cure for the Coronavirus, Part Two by Robert W. Peck

Fear is Here

There is a cure for the coronavirus itself, and that cure is found in faith in God, His power, and His promises to save, deliver, and heal.

However, the greatest threat facing America, the church, and believers individually is not the virus but the fear surrounding it. Panic purchasing, toilet paper shortages, quarantining people who aren’t even sick, closing businesses, closing churches, and closing economies – all of these are the product of fear, not faith.

Americans have almost uniformly acquiesced to the forfeiture of God-given rights, and fundamental liberties once held inviolably. The church has curtailed worship and the assembling of ourselves together. The pursuit of happiness through meaningful employment and productivity was snatched away from millions overnight. Faith doesn’t motivate people to forfeit liberty, but fear does bring into bondage.

I used to wonder how an antichrist figure could ever get people to submit to his rule and accept his mark. But as I watch people’s reactions, including those of many professing Christians, to a virus now rebranded a pandemic, and as Bill Gates proposes global vaccination and digital branding of the world’s population to prove who’s safe to be let out of their house, I can see how Satan’s tool of fear could be used to bring the whole planet under bondage.

America, and most of the church, are acting like the report of the six o’clock news is more real than the word of God. If that’s not so, then why aren’t we out there boldly living like Psalm 91 is true and the arrows of virus flying around us are of no consequence to us because the Lord is our refuge and fortress?

Bondage begins where expectation in the power of evil to harm us outweighs trust in the faithfulness of God to deliver us.

America and the church are showing more symptoms of the spiritually deadly disease of fear than that of a mere virus. But there is a cure.

The Cure for the Fear

The cure for the pandemic of fear is to silence the voices feeding it, then, feed and activate faith until it flushes out the fear and there’s no place left for it.

Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Not surprisingly, fear comes the same way, by hearing, and by hearing how big and bad the dreaded evil is that’s going to huff, and puff, and blow your house down.

Luke 21:26 tells us that men’s hearts can fail them for fear and for “looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” But Isaiah 26:3 tells us that the Lord will “keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.”

What we hear, or look after, or keep our minds stayed on absolutely does matter and it determines whether our heart, our inner man, will conceive faith or fear; will trust in God to deliver us or believe in the power of evil to harm us: will crumble under the weight of fear for things coming on the world around us or be kept in perfect peace.

If we’re serious about following Jesus’ admonition to “Fear not: believe only,” thereby both averting the peril confronting us by not fearing it, then obtaining God’s deliverance and victory over the peril by only believing His report, we will need to be extremely vigilant in guarding ourselves against voices that feed fear.

I’m not necessarily saying the six o’clock news or anyone else is purposely trying to make us afraid, but I am saying that their all pandemic all the time coverage is inundating our senses with awareness of the illness and its power to harm us. Simply hearing the word “coronavirus,” or “COVID-19,” or seeing that super-magnified image of a virus on our TV screen that looks like it’s six feet tall and it’s coming after us – all of that feeds fear, even if only subtly. It’s like dropping one grain of sand at a time into a pipe until eventually your whole faith pipe is clogged with fear and you wonder why you’re having trouble trusting God.

I mean really, how often do you need to be told about a virus to know what it is, how it’s spread, and why you shouldn’t walk around Walmart kissing strangers on the mouth? Everything beyond that basic knowledge is just reinforcing and feeding fear.

If I were you, I would do what I did over a decade ago – put down the newspaper (did that in the 90s), turn off the TV news (secular humanist worldview and feeding fear), tune out the talk radio (political fear-mongering), and be very selective about what little social media you allow yourself to look at while staying in touch with friends (most of whom are caught up in fear).

We already know from God’s word that the coronavirus is not going to kill everyone and that there will still be people here when Jesus returns. We also know that until Jesus returns there will continue to be plagues, wars, calamities, and everything else the six o’clock news has ever told us to fear. And there will always be another election around the corner at which time your favorite party’s political pundits will be telling you to fear the other party as though if they get in, “we’ll all die,” but we haven’t, and we won’t, and if we do, I’d rather die trusting God than cowering in a corner paralyzed with fear.

If we don’t begin to practice the Psalm 91 lifestyle now and continue in it until the next calamity that comes on the world around us, then we’ll be caught unprepared once again and taken in the grip of fear and its torment that will drive us to even greater bondage in the future.

So, if you haven’t already done so, commit to living a Psalm 91 lifestyle now, pursuing adherence to its conditions and faith for all its provisions.

Then, turn off the TV, silence the voices of fear, pick up a Bible, and feed your faith with the word until God starts to look bigger than the problem. Then, pray Psalm 91 as an aggressive offensive attack against Satan and his tactic of fear, and do it all like your life depends on it – because it does.

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

(Proverbs 4:23)

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For those not acquainted with the idea of personalizing and praying a passage of scripture, here’s a sample for praying Psalm 91. God doesn’t intend His word to be a one-way conversation. He intends for us to believe His words, receive them as being for us in Christ, apply them to ourselves and our situations, then speak them back to Him in prayer and faith, believing His word will not return to Him void. Still, it will accomplish what He pleases and prosper in what He sent it to do (Isaiah 55:11).

Psalm 91 Prayer

(Based mostly on NKJV)

1  I dwell in the secret place of the Most High by faith and I Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2  I will say of you LORD, you are my refuge, you are my fortress, you are My God and in you, I will trust.

3  Surely, You shall deliver me from the snare of the fowler And from the deadly disease. (NLT)

4  You shall cover me with your feathers, And under Your wings, I shall take refuge; Your faithful promises are my armor and protection. (NLT)

5  As a soldier in your army oh Lord, I choose to obey your direct command to “Fear Not,” therefore, I shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,

6  Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

7  A thousand may fall at my side, And ten thousand at my right hand; But it shall not come near me.

8  Only with my eyes shall I look, And see the reward of the wicked.

9  Because I have made you oh LORD, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, my dwelling place,

10  No evil shall befall me, Nor shall any plague come near my dwelling;

11  For You shall give Your angels charge over me, To keep me in all my ways of obedience and service to You. (AMP)

12  In their hands, they shall bear me up, Lest I so much as dash my foot against a stone.

13  I shall tread upon the lion and the cobra at your command, The young lion and the serpent I shall trample underfoot.

14  Because I have set my love, all value, treasuring, and full allegiance upon you oh Lord, therefore You will deliver me; You will set me on high because I have known and trusted in the honor and integrity of Your name.

15  I shall call upon you, and you will answer me; You will be with me in trouble; You will deliver me and honor me.

16  With long life you will satisfy me, and show me all of Your wonderful, marvelous, glorious salvation.