Prayers for the world

 

I have been interceding for intermittently since January, 2025, as follows. It is sometimes hard to discern how God is responding to these prayers. Will you join me in this prayer?

Father, we praise You as the unchanging God, the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). You are King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15), and Your plans for nations cannot be thwarted (Job 42:2).” We look to you for direction, for Your almighty power to rescue our nation from its godlessness and rebellion. We know that we have not faithfully served you as a nation for many decades. We have individually sinned and fallen short of what You have called us to. We plea for humility—both individually and nationally. As Scripture says, humility precedes forgiveness and healing. May we seek Your face and deny our rebellious ways but instead submit to You and learn from You the ways we should walk. Hide us in Your arms of safety as we continue to seek You. 

 Heavenly Father, we plead in the name of Jesus that you would call and appoint godly leaders in our country. We pray for both elected and appointed leaders, including President Trump, vice-president Vance, the cabinet, congressional leaders, and the host of other officials in the government. Father, we ask You to speak to them, and intervene in their lives with Your power to direct them to seek godly counsel and make decisions that are based on justice, wisdom, compassion, prudence, and love for You.  We ask You to work in their hearts to seek Your will for both themselves and this nation. Just as Daniel influenced Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, just as Abraham Lincoln turned to You in the midst of the war between the states, whether they know you or not, by Your sovereign will compel them to honor and serve You.

 We pray, Father, for the people of this nation, that they would recognize Your hand at work in the Sodom and Gomorrah called Hollywood, that they would turn back to You. We ask:

·         That those in church fully commit themselves to You;

·         That You convict those who believe but are not actively practicing their faith of their need to return to Your people and Your church;

·         That You reveal Yourself to those who doubt Your existence or Your nature and character to remove all doubt and confusion about Yourself; and

·         That You make a fresh presentation of Your offer of grace to those in rebellion or under the power of the enemy - please deliver them, Lord Jesus.

We pray for souls to come into Your Kingdom, hearts to melt from anger, & that what is being done in darkness come to the light. We pray that Your standards and Your laws and Your ways become normal for us in our nation. That justice and mercy and holiness and love would be the goal for all of our lives. As it is written, “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

 

Lord, we ask that You heal divisions within Your church and among Your people. May we be united under the banner of Christ, showing love for one another so that the world will know we are Your disciples (John 13:35). Let revival start within us, Your people, and spread outward to transform our communities and nation.”

 

Father, we pray for peace in the Mid-East. We thank You that Israel is able to defend her people, and that You have inflicted confusion and weakness on her enemies. Let those who seek evil be defeated and destroyed. We ask You to give grace to any who will receive it from You, and separate them from those who are irredeemably committed to evil. We ask that the leaders of the nations see their need to end the war and that Israel will emerge stronger and safer than ever before. Remove those who will not honor You. Father, glorify Your name through all that happens in war and international affairs. Father, we ask that even the Islamic nations recognize Your hand and Your power, Your nature and character, Your very essence in this situation.

 We ask You, Father, to intervene in the war in the Ukraine, to end it on Your terms. Defeat the aggressors by Your mighty power. Empower those who honor and serve You with the means of victory. Comfort and heal the victims of evil aggression, and hold to account with justice those evil people who have created this war. We ask that the world would see Your justice displayed.

 Make haste, Lord Jesus, to prepare the way for Your return. Lord, while we long for Your return, help us to stay faithful in serving You. Equip us to shine as lights in a dark world (Philippians 2:15), sharing the gospel boldly and living lives that glorify You. Father, we ask for Your mercy on those who are blinded by the enemy.

 Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who face persecution for Your name. Comfort them, sustain them, and remind them of Your promise: ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:10). And yet we also pray for the persecutors’ redemption and transformation, those caught in deep sin or opposition to God. Open their eyes to Your truth, soften their hearts, and give them the gift of repentance (2 Timothy 2:25-26). Let Your love and grace reach them, so they may turn from darkness to light and glorify Your name.

Lessons from the strokes of love

 

I remember as a new believer once asking the pastor of our church why God allowed suffering in a very specific case. He had an aunt in her eighties who was in terminal phase of some disease (I can’t remember what), in great and continuing pain. I asked him why God allowed such suffering in such a godly saint who had served Him faithfully for six or seven decades. Why not just take her home? His response was simple: “Intimacy with Christ.”

We can look at Job, who asked God why he was suffering, and asked for a chance to argue his case before God (that he was being unfairly punished without a hearing). Of course we know that Job’s trials were the result of conversations between God and Satan about Job’s faith being merely mercenary. Ultimately Job cursed the day of his birth, implying that with the nature of existence being like this (suffering without a cause or even an explanation), he did not want to be part of it. And then in the end, God didn’t answer Job’s questions. Instead, He simply pointed to the wonders of creation and asked Job if he could do any of these things, thereby making it obvious that Job was in no position to judge what He did.

All of this came to a head when I was diagnosed with cancer, endured two operations, and went through six weeks of oncology radiation. I had avoided behaviors that increase the risk of cancer throughout my life (smoking, drinking, etc,). I had tried to serve the Lord faithfully for the last fifty years. It didn’t seem fair. When I took this to God in prayer, His answer was simple. When I accept that I can trust Him even when I don’t understand what He is doing, then I will have confidence that I am His even when I don’t feel that way. “When you can’t see His hand, trust His heart” becomes “the one who comes to Me I certainly will not cast out” (John 6:37).

Even Jesus endured suffering, but with a profound purpose: the redemption of mankind. He was always in constant communion with His Father, until that moment on the cross when the Father turned His face away. (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34) The lesson here was not for Jesus to learn, but for us. The cost of sin is separation from God.

Each of us goes through trials in life, some of our own making, some due to others’ actions, and some the vicissitudes of life. We live in a fallen world. The important thing is that we continually seek the Lord to hear directly from Him what lesson He is trying to teach us, in any situation, whether it is a trial or not. But would we learn some of these lessons and take them seriously if they were not taught with the strokes of a loving but firm Father? (Hebrews 12:5-6)

Book Review: Benjamin Franklin, An American Life, by Walter Isaacson

 I initially picked up this because of a comment in one of our Braveco classes, lauding the list of virtues that the young Ben Franklin wrote up as his goal to live by. [The list: Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity and Humility.] The unique aspect of this culturally is that Ben Franklin was raised in a very strict Puritan household. Ben Franklin was not a Puritan, but he was comfortable hanging out with them. Whether he actually had a personal relationship with the Lord is hard to discern; his later actions in life suggest that he attempted to live in accordance with his 13 virtues, and did a great job at presenting a moral and respectable lifestyle. Perhaps we could say he was one of those blessed with the earthly benefits of having extremely godly parents and growing up in a god-respecting society, without actually embracing its core of divine spiritual life through direct connection with God.

The vast majority of the biography covers the major accomplishments of Franklin’s life, which are renowned.

•      In colonial America he was the first to initiate a postal system connecting the colonies.

•      He ran a printing shop and produced Poor Richard’s Almanac.  He also wrote many letters and flyers under pseudonyms regarding various events and political activities.

•      He made three diplomatic trips to Great Britain on behalf of the colonies. These each lasted about five years.

•      He made a diplomatic trip to France during the American Revolution, lasting about nine years, and was instrumental in developing the final terms of the peace accord which granted the colonies independence.

•      During all of this, he did science. One was his famous experiment of flying a kite in a thunderstorm, which led to the invention of lightning rods. He did many other scientific experiments (he was a tester, not a theoretician).

The book also details the rather sad story of Franklin’s personal life. The wife he was away from for so many years (she refused to travel to Europe). The illegitimate son and illegitimate grandson that he was ultimately estranged from (their decision, not his). The daughter he loved and who remained loyal to him, at tremendous personal cost.

In conclusion, the author points out the connection between Franklin’s detaching his ethos and spirit of industriousness from the rigid Puritan theology, while retaining its benefits for society. This became widely accepted as part of basic American culture. He does not attempt to evaluate whether Franklin’s faith included a personal relationship with a transcendent Christ, as his Puritan upbringing would have taught him.