God is sovereign. Nothing happens that He did not know about ions of time before it happened. He sees and knows what is happening around us now – every detail, every case of the virus, every angry word, every lie, every form of hate, every mouth of deception. He is fully aware and all-knowing. There is nothing He does not see and no evil He does not grieve over.

This is also true: God is fully capable of ending this virus in the snap of a finger or twinkle of an eye, but He has not. To this moment, it has not been the choice of the Almighty Creator, the Living God, to move in His power and end this evil scourge that plagues us. He is fully able, but He has not chosen to do it. At least, not yet.

And why would He? Why would He move quickly to answer the cries of a people who have rejected so much of who He is and what He has taught us? Why would He move quickly to rescue us when so many of us in our society do not truly believe or even hate His name and the teachings He has given us? Why should He respond when His people look to the institutions of man first for their answers, rather than Him? Why should He respond when we hate one another? Why should He respond when we despise authorities that He has established for us? Why should He respond when we massacre millions of innocent lives before they breathe their first breath? Why should He respond when we reject His divine order for family and marriage? Why should He respond when we make idols out of earthly leaders? Why should He respond when many of us who follow Him have a form of righteousness that is only skin deep?

Here is a another question: Why should He respond quickly to our cries when we have added our merit, our restrictions, our add-ons and so many other pathways to salvation, deliverance and freedom other than The Way, The Truth and The Life that only comes from the sacrifice of our risen Savior, His Son?

From the beginning of this crisis, I have repeatedly prayed the same prayer. I wrote about it on my website and posted it on my social media on April 4. I spoke with many fellow followers of The Way before posting it. I was deeply moved to know how God was speaking the same to so many people. The prayer is this: “Please Lord, do not lift this plague until You have completed Your work among Your people!” I am still praying this today. Perhaps God is hearing this prayer and answering it.

If this is so (for it certainly could be), how should we respond? One friend of mine said, “Many are praying, but only for God to deliver us from this crisis. However, our hearts are not repentant and humbled.”

There is the key. Perhaps we should change our tone and our message. Perhaps we should be crying out in repentance rather than for deliverance. Perhaps we should be falling on our knees and our faces in brokenness. Perhaps our pride should be obliterated and replaced with genuine humility, for “God hates the ways of the proud, but gives mercy to the humble. So humble yourselves before God” (James 4:6-7). Perhaps the Almighty Creator God is waiting on us to come before Him in contrition, laying our hearts before Him and surrendering wholly and completely to His will and His ways.

Perhaps the time is now to respond to this crisis in the way that can and will move the heart of the Living God to have compassion on us, heal us, deliver us, and change us. Only this will bring glory to His name, and only this will heal our land.