An open letter to followers of Christ.

Dear Believer,

As a follower of Christ, when I read ‘Our God is Bigger Than COVID-19’, I nod my head in agreement.

I would even say ‘Amen’ or ‘praise God’.

But — do I REALLY believe that?  

Can I truly believe my God is bigger than COVID-19 if my thoughts and actions say differently?

Am I being sincere with God if I’m being driven by fear?

There’s no denying these are scary times. 

Negativity is all around us.  The virus, the economy, social distancing, quarantines — it feels like we’re getting punched in the gut every hour.

The media is announcing every new case of the coronavirus with trumpets and fireworks, and we’re eating it up.

Our Facebook feeds are filled with friends sharing every article, report, and bad news available.  We’re even guilty of it ourselves.

We’ve become CONSUMED by the virus.

And that’s the first problem.  We’re choosing to fill our head with media — rather than God’s word (more on this later).

We’re choosing to be consumed by the virus — and not by Christ.

I believe the BIGGEST threat to Christians right now is not the virus — it’s spiritual.  How we THINK and ACT over the next few weeks or months will define us.

We’ll either be a BEACON for Christ, or we will be swallowed up by fear and useless as Christians.

That might be a strong statement, but I believe it to be 100% true.

By living in fear — you’re saying ‘God, I don’t believe You”.

How do we overcome fear?

First, you have to understand fear is an effect — it’s a symptom.

And just like in medicine, you can’t cure a disease by treating its symptoms.  When you only treat symptoms you’re not fixing the problem — you’re simply managing it.

You don’t want to ‘manage’ fear.  You want to get to the CAUSE of fear and FIX that.

I’m going to use the lessons found Numbers 13 and 14 to help us see how God wants us to overcome fear.

(If you haven’t read Numbers 13 and 14, I’d suggest spending a few minutes reading it.)

Up to this point, the Israelites have spent TWO years walking towards the land God had promised them.  

In Numbers 13 they find themselves in a place called Kadesh — A frontier town on the edge of the promised land.

The Israelites were inches away from their goal, all they had to do was trust God.

We read at the beginning of Numbers 13,  twelve men (one from each of the 12 tribes) were sent into the promise land to spy.

They were instructed to…

“Look the land over, see what it is like. Assess the people: Are they strong or weak? Are there few or many? Observe the land: Is it pleasant or harsh? Describe the towns where they live: Are they open camps or fortified with walls? And the soil: Is it fertile or barren? Are there forests? And try to bring back a sample of the produce that grows there—this is the season for the first ripe grapes.”

For the next 40 days, the spies went throughout the promise land to gather intel.  When they returned, this is what they said…

“We went to the land to which you sent us and, oh! It does flow with milk and honey! Just look at this fruit! The only thing is that the people who live there are fierce, their cities are huge and well fortified. Worse yet, we saw descendants of the giant Anak. Amalekites are spread out in the Negev; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites hold the hill country; and the Canaanites are established on the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan.”

The spies came back and delivered the bad news.

Yes, the land was just as awesome as God had promised.  BUT, the people who lived there were GIANTS.

In their opinion, there was no way they could take the land — and the Israelites were devastated.

Which brings us to…

We focus on the OBSTACLE and OURSELVES.

The exact same thing is happening right now.  We’re focused on the VIRUS.  We’ve become experts in virology.  We know EVERYTHING there is to know about what’s going on.

We share every article, new case, and death.

If you were to scroll through your personal status updates - what would it show?

Satan wants us focused on the obstacle because the only way to do that is to take our eyes off JESUS.

Also, when you focus on the obstacle — you can’t help but focus on YOURSELF.

Because the spies could only see how big the people living in the promised land were, they decided there was nothing they could do about it.  They were too small.

Here’s what they said about themselves…

“We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.”

They viewed themselves as grasshoppers.

Now, it’s not like the spies surveyed the inhabitants of the promised land to see what they thought of the Israelites.

They just assumed.

They were only focused on themselves, and they weren’t strong enough.

And here’s the truth — they weren’t strong enough.  But, that’s not the point.

God was strong enough and they forgot that.  They were too focused on the obstacle and themselves.

Fear is born when we FORGET what God has already done in our lives.

The Israelites had a short-term memory. They forgot about…

• The plagues of Egypt.
• The Passover.
• Crossing the Red Sea.
• How God provided mana and quail for food.
• The Ten Commandments.

These are just a few of the miracles THEY PERSONALLY witnessed. 

The same God who did tremendous and extraordinary things for them, had PROMISED them the land.  It was theirs.

But they forgot and let fear take over.

The same happens with us.  We forget all the wonderful things God has done in our lives.

He’s saved us.  He’s forgiven us.  

Fear is born when we ENVISION a dreaded future.

When we can’t see a good future, we get scared.

When the Israelites gave into fear, they thought the future was going to be terrible.  Here’s what they said…

“Why didn’t we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us? Our wives and children are about to become plunder. Why don’t we just head back to Egypt? And right now!”

They believed and acted like they were going to die and their wives and kids would be taken as slaves.

For most of us, this is the biggest cause of our fear.  We can’t imagine a good outcome.  We think the virus is going to win and things are going to be terrible from here on out.

Now, the important part.  How do we overcome fear?

You have to fix your FOCUS.

You have to fix your MEMORY

You have to fix your HOPE

When you focus on God instead of the virus and your inability to do anything about it…

AND you REMEMBER what God has already done and promised…

AND you place your HOPE in him instead of the uncertain future…

You can Live the way God wants you to live — without FEAR.

AND you can say and actually believe — GOD IS BIGGER THAN COVID-19!

Our biggest problems as believers are spiritually rooted.  Ephesians 6:12 says “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”

Nothing weakens our faith more than a case of sudden amnesia.  When we forget who we are in Christ, we MISS out on the POWER of God’s promises.