First, dangers lurk in loneliness. Several people in the Bible have experienced loneliness. Jesus felt extremely lonely in Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46) where even disciples close to him (Peter, John and James) failed to keep him company and comfort him. Although Job’s best friends (Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar) kept him company, he felt lonely because they did not understand him and mistook him for a sinner. David felt lonely because he was persecuted by King Saul. He had to leave his family and be separated from his best friend, Jonathan. What was the antidote to their loneliness?
The presence of God comforted and strengthened them. Likewise, I urge you to keep close to your Saviour. Spend time fellowshipping with your Saviour every day by (1) singing hymns. You may want to look up the following websites for the lyrics and melody: https://hymnary.org/hymnal/FHOP (for English) and http://www.christianstudy.com/lifehymns.html (for Chinese). (2) Pray by telling your Saviour your concerns. Above all, you must have faith in him as you bring your burdens to him. Faith means you trust him to lead you. Faith also means you obey him in your life. (3) Read God’s Word. But read in faith. You cannot find rest and peace if you doubt God’s Word. Read Psalm 1 to Psalm 150. It is medicine for loneliness.
Second, danger lurks in spiritual laziness. Be faithful in worship service, Sunday School classes and cell group/fellowship meetings. If not, you can be sure you will fall into sin and sin will eat your life away before it swallows you completely. Destruction starts with a little laziness and compromise. It is a slow but a very sure process that will destroy your life. I hope that when you worship online, you do as what the chairman instructs including standing for the first hymn, kneeling down to pray, opening your Bibles, reading responsively, etc. Yes, no one is looking at you. But God is observing you. Also, although no one can see your heart, people can feel and smell your heart. In fact, people can smell the smell that you emit, if it smelled sweet or if it smelled of rotten spiritual eggs.
Why did Covid-19 happen? One reason could be this: God commands us to rest on one out of the seven days in a week. Jews call it the Sabbath Day, which means rest day. Christians call it the Lord’s Day: we are commanded to work for six days and rest on the seventh day, Sunday. The Old Testament also has other Sabbaths or rest days, one of which is Sabbath or rest for the land: the Jews may farm the land for six years. But on the seventh year, all farming and harvesting in the land must cease. My point is: God commands us to rest physically and spiritually on Sundays. Yet humankind blatantly abused God’s goodness to feed their greed to earn more money and to live self-centred lives. Whether it was God’s intention or not, Covid-19 has forced the world to rest: to stop work and understand that we need God to keep us safe. After God has spoken so clearly to us through Covid-19, we must not blatantly ignore his sign of warning through Covid-19. Repent before God sends greater calamity. Let us seek the Lord on Sundays. The Lord will provide our needs. Do not worry.