When confronted with the unsettling realities of our world, it can be challenging to know what to think, say, or do. As a congregation, we’ve made a deliberate effort in recent years to engage in hard topics. We had the Imago Dei sermon series and welcomed Tim Muehlhoff for insightful seminars on Winsome Convictions and Difficult Conversations two years in a row. Most recently, we hosted a Bethel Institute class on Race and the Gospel, complemented by a seminar led by Isaac Adams on Let’s Talk About Race. Through these experiences, we’ve gained valuable insights that remain relevant in various situations today.
Many of you may be following the news coming out of Israel and Gaza, wondering how to respond. As Isaac recently encouraged us, we want to spend time in prayer. You can use the one below to guide you. Let us unite in prayer, coming together to seek peace and solace for Israel and Gaza during these challenging times.
A Prayer for Israel and Gaza
O Spirit who brooded over the primal chaos,
O Father who ordered all creation,
O Christ through whom all things were formed from nothing.
We worship You.
Lord, we lift up Israel and Gaza to You. Please speak into this crisis. Give world leaders wisdom as they handle this situation. Guide our hearts and minds as we pray. Open our eyes to those who grieve in our churches and communities, and help us to comfort them.
We lift our prayer to you,
Lord, hear us.
In the midst of this chaos, and all chaos, let us learn to call upon and learn upon your name, O God – for you are the One who ordered all things in the beginning. You are the One who is making all things new. You are the only One who can sustain us in our struggle with all that is not yet put right. You are Jehovah Shalom – God Our Peace – who alone can speak a deep and lasting calm to the chaos of this world, and to the chaos in our own hearts and minds.
We lift our prayer to you,
Lord, hear us.
Grant us peace amidst this world’s relentless disorder, O Christ. Still our minds and strengthen our hands. Keep despair far from the door. Be our present help when we sigh at the sight of constant disarray even as we long to pronounce more than a momentary It is good.
We lift our prayer to you,
Lord, hear us.
Let us play our own assigned parts, Jesus, struggling always in your strength, resting always in your righteousness, trusting always in the trajectory of your restoring and renewing work. Keep us anchored – mind and heart – in the place you have prescribed for us. Let us be – in the midst of any turbulence – still secure, established, and at peace.
We lift our prayer to you,
Lord, hear us.
Keep us ever abiding in you, O Christ, our root, our vine, our rock, our hope, that we might ever be agents of your peace, in the midst of any of the many unsettled places in this tilted world.
Amen.
Edited and adapted from World Relief’s “A Prayer for Israel and Gaza” and Every Moment Holy, Vol 3 used by permission
