We suffer from The Plague of the Heart.
We have experienced horrific violence and great rift in our nation. We have seen increased pain in the lives of so many Americans. We suffer from The Plague of the Heart.
“Whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to every one according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.”
1 Kings 8:38-40 New King James Version (NKJV)
The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
Jeremiah 17:9 New King James Version (NKJV)
Pandemic grips today’s world. An epidemic that has led to a rise in authoritarianism and draconian control complete with contact tracing and potential laws being passed to enforce surveillance on the American people and the world at large. Many are making comparisons to Fascism, seeing eerie similarities to the Brown Shirts of Nazi Germany, and a constant drumbeat of fear-mongering propaganda. As this fear takes hold of people’s hearts and minds, they are compelled through self-preservation to call hotlines and police departments to turn in neighbors, friends, and family members. The accusation of these moral narcissists who hand others over to the authorities is societal selfishness. We are accused of our selfishness to work, selfishness to open up our businesses, selfishness to feed our families, and selfishness to worship and be with our church families
To understand why this is happening, we must go back to the fall of man. Genesis 3:9-10 says, “Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid.” Herein lies the beginning of the real plague of man. Adam became consumed with fear and guilt, which led to self-preservation alienated from God. Adam set out to save himself, which is why he ran and hid. All of humanity has been running away and hiding from God ever since. Our selfishness is the destroyer plaguing our hearts, our minds, and our actions towards others. Selfishness is a condition of displaced love and liberty, all in the name of self-preservation. 1 John 2:16 says, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” In today’s modern society, we can call these things sensualism, materialism, and egotism. All of these pursuits are to assuage the heart and mind alienated from God. Trust in God is gone and replaced by desires that are pathogens that spread like a wild virus infecting the world.
Now we see politicians and scientists with agendas of egotism and greed filled motivations looking for a medical solution to the Covid-19 pandemic alienated from God and the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 6:22-24, Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Current events tell us that our world is falling further and further into darkness brought on not by a natural virus but by the plague of our very hearts. Perhaps this virus is God’s way of showing us the outward manifestation of our total depravity and sin-filled condition. Countless people are trying to fight this battle without the Lord Jesus Christ and are now relying on their reprobate minds to save themselves and the rest of us.
Luke 5:31 says, “And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus is the Physician who we should be seeking out now. Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
At the same time, we have the Church deemed non-essential. All when this is the most significant moment for the Church to Evangelize and bring others to Salvation in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. Consider that Salvation derives from the root Salve, which means to heal. The great John Newton wrote:
“Physician of my sin-sick soul, To thee I bring my case; My raging malady control, And heal me by thy grace. Pity the anguish I endure, See how I mourn and pine; For never can I hope a cure From any hand but thine. Lord, I am sick, regard my cry, And set my spirit free: Say, canst thou let a sinner die,
Who longs to live to thee?”
Now is the time to turn toward God. Now is the time to humble ourselves. Now is the time for prayer, repentance, and to turn from our wicked ways in this fallen, fractured creation that we live. Now is the time for the Church to break free from the chains of bondage created by the State. Now is the time to call upon the name of the Great Physician and Healer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
My son, give me your heart,And let your eyes observe my ways.
Proverbs 23:26 New King James Version (NKJV)