The power of prayer to deal with coronavirus anxiety
Writing to the church at Philippi, where he had once been beaten and imprisoned, Paul tells the believers in the book of Philippians not to worry or to be anxious about anything. Instead, Paul instructs them they should pray for God's blessing and make supplication for his protection and do it all with thanksgiving.
Some reject the instruction of scripture to pray in times of need. Consider the media mockery of Vice-President Mike Pence for leading the Coronavirus taskforce in prayer to ask God’s help before they got to work. The New Yorker tweeted a cartoon of Pence calling for “handwashing and repentance” to deal with the virus.
This hostility or at best indifference toward prayer and faith is dangerous in a moment of crisis and dismissive of an important practice for millions of Americans. “More than half (55%) of Americans say they pray every day, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center...
