A friend posed the question: "Why did God put the church out of our buildings this spring?"
God's will is a multifaceted thing and many times a mystery. That said, there is His sovereign will, and then there are things he allows within his sovereign will which do not align with His written will (that being the commands of scripture). In this light, I look at it as more of God allowing human government (principalities, powers, and all that jazz) to force individual church congregations to close the doors of their physical meeting places.
That said, the church in America is fat and lazy (metaphorically speaking), very much like the Church of Laodicea mentioned by the Apostle John in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. We in the west are very attached to "rights" that we claim are given by God, when indeed it is impossible to find most of these rights in the pages of Scripture. We have a command: "forsake not the gathering together of yourselves," and there is nothing in the closing of church buildings (which did not exist as such in the time of the apostles), which should prevent us from gathering together for worship, even if the size of the gathering is small.
What I observe to have been revealed is that those who are true followers of Christ continued to seek Him out and continued to gather together with others of like faith in smaller groups, while many who were not of strong faith have fallen away. And yet many others are crying out about persecution, though the word doesn't really fit in this case. Getting back to perceived "rights," there is only one thing to which humankind has any right and that is death and separation from God because of our sin.
I can say one thing that it has done for me. It has made me more introspective. It has made me seek out contact with brothers with whom I have not fellowshipped in a long time. It has caused me to seek more time in prayer and meditation. This has foster the nurturing of a closer relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ by the ministrations of the Holy Spirit. The current situation is not persecution, no; however, a time is coming, as laid out in the pages of scripture, when persecution will come and it will be fierce. if we do not now build our relationship with the Almighty during this calm before the storm, we will fall away into the sea of uncertainty when the persecution does start.
Love God, live through the Spirit, love your neighbor.
