In a moment of time, all our lives have changed; everything that we have taken for granted has gone.
Who would have thought just three months ago that we would not be allowed to congregate freely in our parks, that all sporting fixtures would be cancelled, pubs and clubs shut, and the streets of our towns and cities empty.
Who would have thought that we would have to queue to get into our supermarkets, and find shortages on the shelves?
And who would have thought just three short months ago that we would see palpable fear in peoples' eyes as the scourge of coronavirus reached our shores?
Where once we thought that we were going to live our lives as if we were never going to die, as if we were in control, coronavirus has made us think again.
Jesus said that the house built on Him - the rock - will stand when the floods come and beat against it. That house will stand because it was built on Him. But those who hear his words and ignore them are foolish, and have built their house on sand. When the storms come, their house will fall.
We, as a nation, have for 60 years built our house on sand, and now many people have no hope and live in fear at the prospect of a possible human and economic catastrophe befalling our nation.
In Britain's darkest hour during World War II, a godly king called this nation to a day of prayer and the churches were packed as millions responded in crying out to God for deliverance. Then the miracle of Dunkirk unfolded before the nation's eyes.
Back then in 1940, the people of this island nation were not ashamed to get on their knees and cry out to the Lord God Almighty for mercy and deliverance.
May I respectfully say to my fellow Britons from all walks of life that as we too face our "darkest hour", we must let go of our pride and turn back to Him for mercy and our deliverance from this plague, because there is simply no one else that can do this.
Surely it is time in our darkest hour to build our nation again on the rock of Jesus Christ. Surely it is the time for another National Day of Prayer.
