Six months ago, we discussed with the doctor of our adopted special child the possibility for her to stop taking the prohibited drug phenobarbital, in case we need to leave the country to visit relatives abroad. Her doctor agreed and scheduled the tapering of the dosage of the drug, to end first week of March this year. Our special child stopped taking the drug, at the same time the Covid-19 virus has started to affect a few in the Philippines. It is now the third week of March and a total lockdown is now in place in the whole of Luzon, the biggest island in the Philippines, to prevent the spread of the virus that has already affected many during the last two weeks. I was so grateful to our Almighty God because He spared us from a difficult situation, if the prohibited drug taken as maintenance by our special child was not stopped. The drug is not always available in drugstores and not any doctor can prescribe it.
In December of last year, I was looking for a song fit for Invocation to start the program for the 50th Anniversary celebration and reunion of our high school batch. I believed I'm not good in saying prayers but I wanted to glorify God at the start of the program since I've felt how the Holy Spirit helped me and the other organizers of our reunion. I've chosen the song "Blessings" by Laura Story not because it is fit as an Invocation Song but because it fits the audience, all senior citizens at that, who had underwent several trials in their lives. While trying to learn the song, the lyrics were instilled in my mind and pierced my heart.
After finally singing the song which I haven't perfectly learned yet during our 50th celebration, I've wanted to study it more and make a cover in my YouTube channel to thank and praise God. I made two versions, believing the first one was not too good. I integrated the two videos, I knew it is not perfect but I know it will now please God. I shared the video to some friends, and one told me she has a copy of the song's musical piece, and I've thought that if a group of people will sing the piece, God will be more pleased. I'm still looking forward for that to happen.
"What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise", that line of the song I've been talking about is now so appropriate during the Covid-19 situation. The trial was not intended for just one person but for the whole world. Through the song, God has prepared me to accept another trial in life wholeheartedly, I had no idea that would be the Covid-19 that is now causing havoc to the whole world. I had hoped that some if not all of the senior citizens who attended our celebration who had heard the song and read the lyrics were prepared too.
Also for this current situation, I was prepared through our Bible studies of the Book of Acts at BSF (Bible Study Fellowship), which started in September of last year, up to the end of Acts only this week, where the apostle Paul encouraged the passengers of the ship not to be afraid, before the shipwreck happened, and when in Rome shared the Gospel even while inside the prison. I was prepared by God to also share the Gospel boldly, and why I have written this blog post now. What if God prepared me for this difficult situation so I will have the strength to write this?
Why might Covid-19 be one of God's mercies in disguise? In 2017, while studying the New Testament's Book of Romans (by the apostle Paul) at BSF, I made a diagram summarizing the chapters 6 to 10 of Romans. All truths from these chapters struck me, maybe I should write another blog post about those truths. But there is one truth very appropriate at this time, from Romans 9, that God is sovereign in extending mercy to the undeserving. Quoting from Romans 9,
Romans 9:22-24 New International Version (NIV)
"What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath— prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?"
Gentiles refer to non-Jews or the rest of us in present time. The above verses say that to make His glory known to the objects of His mercy, God can prepare for destruction. But He also prepares in advance, the objects of His mercy, for glory, and that includes all of us.
The diagram presents a triangle which intends to show the benefits of a saved man inside the triangle. "Glory" as a benefit stated in the above verses, always starts with suffering, but always outweighs suffering. Outside the diagram at the left side is the path of a saved man resulting to his benefits while at the right, outside the triangle, is the undeserving man who can experience God's mercy so that he can be a saved man too rewarded with the same benefits. The diagram did not have a flow from the undeserving man to saved man so it was implied that the transformation can happen through God's mercy, which can be through sufferings or destruction. Transformation starts when we seek God and repent for our sins, recognizing that we were saved when He sent His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for the atonement of our sins and rose from the dead after three days to share with us an eternal life at the end of time. Declaring that "Jesus Christ is Lord" highlights the process of a saved man, while being Christlike with perseverance completes the process.
Romans 10:9-10 New International Version (NIV)
"If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."
Romans 8:18-21 New International Version (NIV)
Present Suffering and Future Glory
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."
Romans 8:28 New International Version (NIV)
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Therefore, Covid-19 can be one of God's mercies in disguise. It doesn't necessarily mean that when you are afflicted with Covid-19, you are an undeserving man. God could have chosen you as an example who trusts God that whatever is happening is not just for your own good but for the good of all.
