Praying for Revival during the Coronavirus Crisis

Disruption is now the daily theme of our workplaces, campuses, homes, and even our inner world.

In the middle of the night, just hours after the University of Michigan decided to cancel all classes due to the coronavirus, I showed up at my son’s fraternity house to move him back home.

The streets were empty and those who were shuffling around did so with determination, like they were each on a mission. Many of them, my son included, were trying to say goodbye to years’ worth of friendships in a few hours, not knowing when or if they’d see one another again.

Many would be graduating with no ceremony, moving across country or returning to their home countries. There is a lot we don’t know about how the coronavirus pandemic will turn out, but we know one thing for sure—it is disruptive.

Disruption is now the daily theme of our workplaces, campuses, homes, and even our inner world. Research related to Gen Z demonstrates strongly that fear and anxiety are a core part of their story and this pandemic feeds right into the very center of their weakness and vulnerability.

I could see it on the face of my son and on the faces of those we passed in the middle of the night on our way out of town. Suddenly, we find ourselves in a time of fear and suffering and these words from Paul in Romans 8:26-28 feel more important to me today than they were a few weeks ago:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 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.

There is a ‘wordless ...