What Does Coronavirus Reveal About the Condition of Our Heart?

The outbreak of the pandemic Covid-19 has sent tremors all across the world. Yes, knowing its contagious and catastrophic nature, we must be concerned about its impact. However, this crisis need not cause God's redeemed people overcome by panic and despair. We may face fear but we must not be conquered by it.

Today morning, in my personal devotions, I came across the words of Christ Jesus, which birthed the following words.

At the end of His Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus delivered heart-searching words. He said that anyone who listens to His words and puts them into practice would be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. When the floods and winds storm the house, it doesn't fall because it is built on the rock. But when these disasters storm a foolish man's house, it collapses because he built his house on the sand. (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49)

The point that the Lord Jesus made was that if we keep listening to His words but do not put them into practice, we will collapse when difficulties storm our lives. Head-knowledge without heart-obedience cannot stand well during crises. But if we keep hearing and obeying God's Word, we will live a steadfast and unshakable life amidst the storms of life.

The outbreak of Coronavirus is a testing time for God's people about their obedience and genuine knowledge. We have been reading God's Word and listening to sermons about the goodness and sovereignty of God and trusting Him in times of difficulties. Praise God! But what does Coronavirus crisis reveal about the condition of our heart concerning all that we have been learning?

In their book "How People Change", Timothy Lane and Paul David Tripp show us the humble truth: "Trials do not cause us to be what we have not been; rather, they reveal what we have been all along. The harvest the trial produces is the result of the roots already in our hearts."

So what does Covid-19 pandemic disclose to us about how much we know God and obey His Word? Where is our faith in God's goodness and sovereignty? Where is our praise and thanksgiving to God in this affliction? Where are our unceasing prayers for God's kind help with whom nothing is impossible? Where is our comfort of God? Where is our joy in the Lord? Where is our hope of eternal life through Christ's death and resurrection? Where is our obedience to all that we have been reading and listening about God?

Contextualizing the Lord Jesus' words spoken at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, let us put it this way. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. When Coronavirus comes closer to his doors or storms his life, he is steadfast and unshaken because he built his house on the rock (knowledge with obedience).

But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. When Coronavirus comes closer to his doors or storms his life,  he is shaken and collapses because he built his house on the sand (head-knowledge without obedience).

What does the pandemic Covid-19 reveal about the condition of our hearts?

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