Praying in a Time of War
by Lisa Laird"Gather into small groups of 2 or 3 and spend the next ten minutes praying together for peace and the whole situation in Iraq and the Middle East." Images flashed in my mind as I turned toward my friend to follow the speaker's directions. Kurdish families - parents, grandparents, and children piled onto the family tractor to flee the city. The NCAA tournament director assuring U.S. basketball fans that the upcoming tournament will proceed as planned whether or not the United States goes to war. Friends who live and work in the Middle East. College-age American servicemen and women. Bombs falling on neighborhoods. "Bush's Doctrine of War" headline from yesterday's New York Times.
How can I turn all these flashes of thought, all these feelings into words, into prayers? How can I pray into the events of this day in a way that matters- that makes a difference? How can I pray for my country and for the world today? Maybe you are also asking questions like this in these days.
Pray.
As with most things, we learn to pray by praying. By beginning, by trying. For me this morning, that meant stammering out
"God, I feel ashamed. I bring you our nation's shame. The shameful way that we are more concerned with college basketball tournament schedules than with the impending war. I feel like we are all out of proportion- the enormous, the strong, the wealthy targeting the scattered, the weak, and the poor. You bring the proud low and exalt the humble and you are the only one who sees rightly who is who, to judge the hearts of people and nations. God, bring the proud low and lift the lowly."
Your starting point may be very different than mine, but the idea is to begin and to keep beginning each day. Talking to God about what is happening in the world that He created and loves.
David, Jeremiah, and Hannah are three biblical figures who dared to pour out their hearts before God. David said,
"O my people, trust in God at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge." (Ps. 62:8)
Jeremiah lamented,
"Cry aloud before the Lord, O walls of Jerusalem! Let your tears flow like a river. Give yourselves no rest from weeping day or night. Rise during the night and cry out. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him in prayer ..." (Lam. 2:18-19).
Hannah pleaded with God and then explained her prayer to Eli
"I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." (I Sam 1:15-16)
Once we have poured out what is "loud" in our own hearts and minds, we are in a good space to listen to God. To pay attention. To wait. "To be still and know that God is God."(Ps. 46:10) Listen for the words that God may speak to you.
Humbly Repent for yourself and for your people
Daniel "heard" from God. Daniel was an exile living in Babylon studying the Hebrew Scriptures where he read the words that Jeremiah the prophet had written about his homeland years earlier - that Jerusalem must lie desolate for 70 years. Seeing that the numbered years were coming to an end, Daniel began to pray earnestly. He put on clothes of mourning - sackcloth and ashes. He fasted and came before God remembering the covenant that God had made with His people and repenting of their sins against God (Daniel 9). Daniel was clear and specific about the people's wrongs and he remembered the truth about who God was in his prayers. Daniel asked God for mercy - to remove His anger from the people and to restore them for the sake of God's own holy name.
While we will not find our nation's particular history written in the pages of Scripture, we may see patterns in how God deals with nations and peoples. Universally, God loves justice and hates sin. God judges, and God shows mercy. God is concerned for His name and for the people who bear His name among the nations of the world.
One means by which God brings judgment in Scripture is by calling a strong nation to overtake the nation receiving His judgment. There are some who would frame our country's current actions in Iraq in this light. Judgment coming to the house of Saddam Hussein by the hand of the United States and our allies. We would be wise to consider the larger context of the story and to take note of the judgment that comes to all nations who have sinned before God. No nation escapes accountability before God for its actions in the world. Now is a good time to stand in repentance before God for our sins and the sins of our people.
Boldly Forgive
Since 9/11, we as Jesus followers in America have been offered a distinct opportunity to go forward with Jesus in forgiving and loving our enemies - those who hate us. The one who from the cross said, "Forgive them, Father" - calls us. He is the one who called his disciples to forgive and keep forgiving. One of Jesus' clear instructions about prayer was, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins" (Mark 11:25). Forgiveness and love are not optional for us as believers, they are essential. Even as we are in need of the Father's forgiveness, we need to extend forgiveness. This applies to terrorists, but not only to them.
As you stand to pray, ask God to show you whom you need to forgive. Ask God to enable others to forgive also. Pray that our national and military leaders will have the capacity and grace to forgive.
We can ask God to help us understand and address the fears that inform our unforgiveness. God will give us love and growing faith in the place of our fear if we ask. We can pray this for ourselves, for people we know, for people we have never met, and even for nations. Ask God to nurture forgiveness and love in the heart of our nation and between the U.S. and the nations of the world.
Pray Images from Scripture
The Scriptures are full of rich imagery. From Genesis to Revelation, God speaks in pictures and images. Pay attention to the images that capture your imagination and bring them with you in prayer.
During the 1991 Gulf War, this image from Proverbs 21 stood out to me, "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases." With that picture in mind of God taking the hearts of the leaders (who felt very remote and untouchable to me) in his hands and making them go wherever he wanted, I was filled with new faith to pray for President Saddam Hussein and President Bush - for their encounters with the living God.
Pray into the headlines and the sound bytes
It is easy to "tune into" the news in a time of crises, listening to and reading the latest updates over and over again. This repetition tends to numb our minds and hearts, and it can actually distance us from the truth of what has and is happening. Instead, try to pray into the news that you hear as you hear it. Be intentional about this. When a headline gets your attention, stop and pray. Pray for the people involved. Pray for the specifics of that situation, that moment. Don't worry if the "moment" has passed. Pray for the leaders who are making decisions based on that piece of news.
"This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it - the LORD is his name: 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'" Jeremiah 33:2-3
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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