How are you praying through the crisis surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19)?

I’ve been praying for many weeks, particularly when the virus was largely within the Wuhan region in China. I have many friends who minister both in and through China, as I’m sure many of us do. I have a great deal of care for what’s been going on in China even over the past year or two.

I’ve been praying for revival in China, even for months leading up to this. With this crisis they’ve experienced, I’ve been praying that God would do a mighty work among them, that God would bring about whatever peaceful revolution is needed, and that God’s Spirit would do a mighty work in bringing many to the Lord Jesus Christ. The churches in Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea are some of the fastest-growing churches in the world, and I pray that God would begin to do a mighty work and grow his church in China.

We’re also praying for those families who have been affected, not only in China but throughout the world and now here in the United States. We’re praying both for the spiritual and physical wellbeing of all individuals. We’re praying for the protection of friends and family. We’re also praying for all those who are in the medical world, that the Lord would protect them and that He would help to contain this.

One of the things we are praying in every prayer, just as we did this morning as a family at home, is that God, who is sovereign, who is in control of all things, who is sovereign over COVID-19 and every other sickness or virus that has ever come about throughout all of history, would use it for His own glory and for the good of His people. We’re praying that He would bring many to their knees in repentance at the foot of the cross.

This is a transcript of Burk Parsons’s answer from the Pastoral Care in Times of Crisis panel discussion during our Made in the Image of God event and has been lightly edited for readability. To ask Ligonier a biblical or theological question, email ask@ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.