All these man-made little kingdoms, built on the sands of pride, are all now crumbling. On the other side of all this, then, God, in all His grace and lovingkindness, awaits their return, “to your First Love” as He says in Revelation 2:1-5.
QUESTION: “If God is love and merciful and good, how can He allow this terrible coronavirus pandemic that is causing so many deaths, and causing so much fear and uncertainty all over the world?”
DR. BROWNING: Very good question, and I’m sure millions all over the world are asking it. We first need to ask ourselves if God is in control, on His throne, allowing this to happen, or, this took Him by surprise just as it did us?
For the best answer, of course, you go to what we call “The Owner’s Manual,” the Word of God Itself. That’s where the Lord reveals Himself, His ways, His will, His works and all His awesome attributes to us.
The key to the question is found in Ephesians 1:11, where God says that He “…works ALL things according to the counsel of His own will.” This mirrors the well-known verse in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
In a nutshell, then, God’s controls all things, yes, even viruses and pandemics, and causes them to work together for the good purposes He has planned for those He loves.
But how can this evil COVID-19 plague we’re all going through in any way be “good” and the plans of a loving God? I like to call the Lord the all-loving and merciful and all-powerful Gatekeeper. As we see in the book of Job, the first 2 chapters, nothing could get into Job’s life—not even all the avalanche of miseries he endured—unless God permitted it; not one thing. Even Satan had to get permission!
I remember when our daughter, Faith, was about 14 years old. Mom and Dad planned her Spring Break for her, signing her up for a weeklong Christian camp.
But Faith and her girlfriends had other ideas. They all planned to go to Palm Springs to party down, big-time. That Christian camp sounded like BORING-ville to her, and she let us know she was not happy. We were called all kinds of names, “LAME!” was one of them, and as the bus pulled out taking her to the Grand Canyon with the other campers, she leaned out the window and yelled, “I’m going to HATE it…and I’m gonna make everybody miserable, too!”
What was the outcome of Mom and Dad “working all things together for her good?” On that retreat she met her future husband, the most godly man you could ever meet, and they now have 3 beautiful children, we call our grandTreasures. Talk about good!
Leaving for the trip, she could see not one thing good about it. But when she returned, and to this very day, she thanks us for “the parentals’” will being done.
Out of all this virus nightmare, we will see, according to His riches of grace, much good on the other side of it all.
QUESTION: What good do you think will come of all this?
DR. BROWNING: In fervently seeking the Lord about that question, here’s what He has revealed to me . . .
For literally hundreds of years His people, the church, the Body of Christ, has drifted and been seduced into knowing “about” a historical Jesus. They have come under the deadening influence of religion, ritual, rules and regs, liturgies, and all kinds of “be good like you should” guilt trips.
I call it the dead-museum of religion and embalmed tradition. Yes, some knowledge about the Lord that is accurate and scripturally factual. But what’s missing? The thing God is after most of all – an intimate ENCOUNTER and Father/child personal RELATIONSHIP with the One Who loves them most.
I call it a TLC experience … Trusting, Loving, Connected up-close-and-very-personal love relationship with our Father, with the Lord Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit Who dwells in them.
So, how does God go about waking up His sleepwalking and apathetic people? He has to shake them out of their stupor with a major and dramatic wake-up call that shakes the whole world from its independent-of-God, self-sufficient, self-reliant hardness of heart.
QUESTIONS: How is God using this virus mess to do that wake-up call?
DR. BROWNING: In the book of Hebrews God tells us exactly how He uses even this kind of terrible affliction to get His people’s attention. He says in verses 26 thru 29 that every kingdom that can be shaken will be shaken. And the only Kingdom that remains is the One that cannot be shaken—and that is the Kingdom of God Itself.
The Kingdoms He’s talking about, shaking down to their foundations and bringing them to rubble and shambles, is, I believe, the kingdoms of self, sin, Satan and the inventions of the world system that surrounds us. Anything man relies on and deliberately leaves a holy God out, that will be brought down, and great will be the sound of the crash.
Look around. Listen to the news (although not for too long!). Some little microscopic bug shakes the living daylights out of all man counts on and trusts in. Jobs vanish away. Schools closed. No more sports—a major freak-out for millions addicted to them. Even forced to “shelter in place” only to find, as so many tell us in therapy now, that their own homes are “prisons of torment” and they “feel trapped” and “the walls are closing in on me!” And more emotional pain than we’ve seen in decades.
All these man-made little kingdoms, built on the sands of pride, are all now crumbling. On the other side of all this, then, God, in all His grace and lovingkindness, awaits their return, “to your First Love” as He says in Revelation 2:1-5.
I believe on the happier side of all this tragic mess we will witness a great revival of the Body of Christ, zealous to do life on His terms, reach out to a dying and lost world like never before, and all of us doing “all to the glory of God.”
Yes, it took this evil nightmare to shake up and wake up His people. Read Isaiah chapter 30 verses 15 through 18, and read it many times. For there you will discover the heart of God, pleading with His wayward sheep to “return” so that He “might be gracious to them” and heal their hard hearts.
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you HOW TO pray for these rebellious children of His, and how you personally can return to your First Love. Praise Him while you listen and see what happens.
Our infinitely GOOD God will surely transform all this, in due time, and we shall look back on 2020 and marvel at His redeeming handiwork–beauty from ashes, indeed. Not one doubt because He is faithful—but rarely logical and predictable!
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