COVID19 Call to Prayer – August 14: Revealed from Heaven
18 “The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven
against all the godlessness and wickedness of people,
who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them,
because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—
His eternal power and divine nature—
have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,
so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God,
they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him,
but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
~ Romans 1:18-23
Sometimes, people ask, where is God in this pandemic? Why doesn’t He show Himself?
The answer is the same as it was in Paul’s day…
God’s eternal power and divine nature are seen in creation.
Not only seen, but understood.
The problem is not in God’s revelation, but rather in our response —
we do not glorify Him as God or give thanks to Him,
and so our thinking becomes futile and our foolish hearts darkened.
Let us pray that the Lord would open human eyes so that we glorify and thank Him.
Petition: Please join with us in praying for:
1. Australia – There have still been hundreds of cases every day in Victoria, and continued deaths. There are currently 659 in hospital and 41 in intensive care in the state.
There was a large drop yesterday, but numbers have continued to rise today,
with 372 new cases and 14 deaths. One man in his 20s has died.
NSW has had its best day for weeks with only nine new cases —
three of which are from international quarantine.
There remains considerable nervousness about interstate travel.
The economic impacts of the Victorian lockdown
will run into billions of dollars for the whole of Australia.
The blame game has already begun.
2. The World – New Zealand has shown the difficulty of trying to eradicate the virus.
After being held up as a model for virus eradication, this week there have been 14 new cases and Auckland is now back in stage three lockdown.
Sweden, which had been regarded as getting things wrong,
now appears to be weathering the storm, better than most countries.
The UK has seen a phenomenal 22% drop in the economy.
France and other European countries have seen increasing numbers.
| Russia has become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a vaccine against Covid-19, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, and will begin mass production and immunisation of key workers in the next few weeks. The move, the first time a Covid-19 vaccine has been approved for civilian use, comes after just two months of human trials and underscores Moscow’s desire to rush the vaccine through testing and trial procedures at breakneck speed in an attempt to beat western pharmaceutical companies. But some experts have cast doubt on Russia’s ability to develop a suitable vaccine so fast. |
A Song of Praise – The Blessing (Australia)
The blessing phenomena has gone all over the world.
The Australia version is superb – enjoy and be blessed!
Prayer:
Lord God, we thank You that You have not left us without testimony of Yourself.
All Your creation cries glory. We confess that human beings, made in Your image,
are so blind that we cannot see our Creator, never mind worship, glorify or thank You.
We bless You that You have not left us in darkness,
but that You sent Your Son as the Light into the darkness.
We bless You that You have revealed Him through Your Word,
and by Your Spirit continue to do so.
Grant that in this dark world,
the Light of the World would shine ever more brightly.
In His Name,
Amen.
___
Twice-weekly devotions by David Robertson via Christians United — COVID19 Call to Prayer.[Photo by Jasper Boer on Unsplash]
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