We’ve been in lockdown in South Africa for four days now. It’s only just begun, but I’ve found my prayer life has increased significantly. More solitude time with Jesus. More moment by moment conversations with God. More intercession for those afflicted much worse than I am. More crying out to God for a cure for the virus. More heartfelt confessions of my doubts and fears and short temper with my children. And what I’m realizing is that prayer works. 

Oswald Chambers once wrote, “We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there's nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.” He’s right. Especially in these uncertain times, prayer is our first line of defense.

Pray: to be with Jesus. Our greatest need is not help from God, but rather the God who helps. He, himself, is the one we need more than anything. Allow your prayers to be first about being with Jesus before they become about getting something from him. That is the essence of Christianity. It is a relationship with Christ. And like every relationship, it’s most fruitfully cultivated through regular communication.

Pray: to be more like Jesus. 2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” Who are you becoming in this crisis? How is it shaping you? Will you allow fear or negativity or irritation or lack of patience to dominate? Or will you tap into that grace promised by God that is sufficient for you… to be careful with how you speak, to be slow to anger and to be generous with your words of honor and encouragement and positivity? Will you look more like Christ at the end of this crisis or less like him? 

I want to emerge from this being able to say my kids saw a good example of how a man of God handles crisis. I hope they’ll be able to say, “We felt safer, more loved, more cared for and more believed in than ever.” For that to happen, I have to pray to be more like Jesus.

Pray: to partner with Jesus. Romans 8:34 says, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Right now, Jesus is praying. Those verses go on to explain that nothing can separate us from the love of God. When we pray, we partner with Christ’s love and intercession for the world. We join him on his mission to see God’s kingdom advance and the forces of darkness, including the Coronavirus, retreat. If Jesus is actively engaging in spiritual warfare through prayer, you should be too. Join him. Pray.