Prayer To Heed Warnings And Change Our Behaviour

 M0DELLING and WARNINGS

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic our province – British Columbia – was an envied model for others with how our case numbers were under control and stayed low.  How times change.  In the last month things have begun to spiral out of control.  Case numbers have spiked.  Our rate of infection has more than quadrupled from what it was just a short time ago and in the Greater Vancouver District we are now in our 2^nd week of a 2-week reset lockdown.  Officials are hoping that the numbers will decrease sufficiently to move us out of the critical zone.  It’s hard to say.

As they have many times in the past when things were going wrong, our chief medical officer presented modelling data late last week.  This is a description of how things could go if we do nothing to change our behaviour and what the potential benefits are with certain changes.  It’s a warning to all of us.  Change or face the consequences.

I was reminded of how God has always kept His eye out on human activities.  He’s given us free will and allows us to make incorrect choices even though the suffering that results is painful for Him. 

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.  Genesis 6:5-6

At the same time God also has a “reset” button, so to speak.  When things were so bad in the time of Noah God sent the flood and saved only Noah and his family.  He started over and promised never to completely wipe out the human race again.

However, if you read the Old Testament in the Bible you will see over and over again how God looked at the state of evil in a nation and at a certain point after many warnings, His judgment was brought to bear on them.  However, His desire for them to repent rather than be judged was so strong that prophets like Jonah were not too thrilled with God.  When God sent Jonah to the wicked city of Nineveh Jonah got in a boat and headed in the other direction.  After a fierce storm we know how he was thrown overboard and spent 3 days in the belly of a big fish before being spewed out on the beach.  Well, then he did go to the city and had an amazingly effective ministry of calling them to repentance.  They turned back to God and God lifted His judgment on them.  Jonah’s response??? He was ticked off and so he complained to the Lord about it.

Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.  Jonah 4:2

We are being warned with this medical modelling to change bad behaviour and make different choices.  Nothing would give these officials more joy than to be able to lift restrictions rather than impose tighter and tighter lockdowns. 

We pray today to be those who are willing to see the error of our ways and turn back to God and to doing the right thing in every area of our lives.  We pray for repentance in several areas:

Dear Heavenly Father, we lower our heads before you and we confess that we have too often forgotten that wea re yours.  Sometimes we carry on our lives as if there was no God and we fall short of being a credible witness to You.  For these things we ask your forgiveness and we also ask for your strength.  Give us clear minds and open hearts so we may witness to You in our world.  Remind us to be who You would have us to be regardless of what we are doing or who we are with. 

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.  We have offended against Your holy laws.  We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is nothing good in us.  O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.  Spare those, O God, who confess their faults.  Restore those who are penitent according to Your promises declared unto men in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Grant that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life; to the glory of His name.

O Holy One, we call to you and name you as eternal, ever-present, and boundless in love. Yet there are times, O God, when we fail to recognize you in the dailyness of our lives.  Sometimes shame clenches tightly around our hearts, and we hide our true feelings.  Sometimes fear makes us small, and we miss the chance to speak from our strength.  Sometimes doubt invades our hopefulness, and we degrade our own wisdom.  Holy God, in the daily round from sunrise to sunset, remind us again of your holy presence hovering near us and in us.  Free us from shame and self-doubt.  Help us to see you in the moment-by-moment possibilities to live honestly, to act courageously, and to speak from our wisdom.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9