A key part of our response is prayer. Here is a prayer that was written by a member of St Mark’s Northbridge last week which you may want to use in your prayers:
Lord God and Heavenly Father,
We praise you for your sovereign care of your world. We recognise that all things are upheld and sustained by your powerful and loving hand. So we come before you now and commit to you the global spread of the Coronavirus. Events like this remind us of our own limited control even of our own lives, so we ask for you to act mercifully in this situation.
Please halt the spread of the virus. Protect those who are especially vulnerable; heal those who are sick; prevent any further death. Give wisdom to those who lead and govern that they may take every necessary step for the good of those who serve. Calm the hearts of those who are anxious and please grant your comfort to those who are isolated, or who have lost loved ones from the virus. Exercise your sovereign power in your great love and bring an end to this sickness, we pray.
And we pray for your people in this time. Please enable us to continue meeting together. Please strengthen us to be salt and light in the world. May our lives be characterised by peace and not by panic; by faith rather than fear; by self-sacrifice and service rather than self-seeking; by the proclamation of the gospel to a world that desperately needs the good news of Christ. May our lives be a witness to the firm foundation of Jesus and his life-giving words.
Rescue our world from this sickness. Even more so, be rescuing people from the terrible sickness of sin.
In the name of King Jesus, we pray, Amen.