As we begin to walk down the road to healing for those who are suffering both physically and economically through COVID-19, there is a theologian who gives some great perspective amid this crisis, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  

Lloyd-Jones began his career as a medical doctor and left a life of medicine to become one of the greatest teaching pastors of his time. He was tired of giving people medicine to heal their physical bodies but not doing anything for their spiritual health. He is known for his deep commitment to Bible exposition. Lloyd-Jones taught that the best thing for us in difficult circumstances is to open up God's Word and let it act as medicine for our souls. 

He was so passionate about teaching God’s Word that in November 1940, while the Germans were bombing the city of London, he continued to preach at Westminster Chapel even after a bomb hit the building during the service. As plaster fell from the ceiling he looked up, saw a cloud of smoke, and just kept on preaching. 

Lloyd-Jones wrote, “I preached the messages to the people in the hope that they might help them, and strengthen their faith, in the critical days through which we are passing.” Facing the possibility of being killed through bombing raids in London was an imminent crisis during World War II and in some ways similar to the battles we are facing today. 

As we come together to pray let this be our lens, to focus on the things that are most important in our relationship with Christ: prayer, worship, reading God’s Word, encouraging one another, and deepening our theology, which is anchored to our hope in the person of Jesus Christ as He walks with us through the trials of our day.

Bill Gemaehlich is the EVP/COO operations at Insight for Living Ministries