Prayer Guide 19 April 2020

John Piper Coronavirus and Christ

What God is doing in the coronavirus is showing us—graphically, painfully—that nothing in this world gives the security and satisfaction that we find in the infinite greatness and worth of Jesus. This global pandemic takes away our freedom of movement, our business activity, and our face-to-face relations. It takes away our security and our comfort. And, in the end, it may take away our lives. The reason God exposes us to such losses is to rouse us to rely on Christ. Or to put it another way, the reason he makes calamity the occasion for offering Christ to the world is that the supreme, all-satisfying greatness of Christ shines more brightly when Christ sustains joy in suffering.

May that be our earnest prayer today. That we might know in our hearts, the security, the satisfaction that we find only in Jesus.

·      Let us pray and give thanks for Jesus.

·      Let us give thanks for His greatness and His worth.

·      Let us pray for our daily bread, our needs from day to day. But above teach us Lord to rest only in the finished work of Jesus.

·      Pray for those working at the front line of the Coronavirus war.

·      Pray for those suffering in hospital and at home.

·      Pray for those who have lost loved ones.

·      Above all pray that the Lord would have mercy and draw many to Himself in the gospel.

The hymn writer Joseph Addison wrote:

When all your mercies, O my God,

my rising soul surveys,

transported with the view, I'm lost

in wonder, love, and praise.

Unnumbered comforts to my soul

your tender care bestowed,

before my infant heart conceived

from whom those comforts flowed.

When worn with sickness, oft have you

with health renewed my face;

and when in sins and sorrows sunk,

revived my soul with grace.

Ten thousand thousand precious gifts

my daily thanks employ;

nor is the least a cheerful heart

that tastes those gifts with joy.

Through ev'ry period of my life

your goodness I'll pursue;

and after death, in distant worlds,

the glorious theme renew.

Through all eternity to you

a joyful song I'll raise;

for oh, eternity's too short

to utter all your praise.