Somalia

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 10, 2018

Lord, we come before you

Prayer is communication that invites at-one-ness with You, the source of our being. We call you God, and as revealed in the flesh, Jesus. We ask for empowerment. Transform us with the life-giving force of the Holy Spirit. Make us channels of the your Eternal Love, Light, and Grace. Help us to continue this work of transformation, of ourselves and of all creation.

Lord, in your mercy hear us

As You are One, You call us to this oneness yet we are so divided by what should unite us, our religious beliefs, diverse cultures, resources and desires. You have shown us glimpses of Yourself according to what we are willing and able to receive, then, too often, we become exclusive and possessive. Thinking we own the truth, we denigrate others.

We see this in the tensions in India between Hindus and Muslims leading to the torture, rape and murder of young girls. Coptic Christians being attacked in Egypt. Conflict and sectarian violence continuing in Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world.

Lord, hear us and forgive us

You call us to care and nurture all creation, yet so often we treat it cavalierly and out of greed, abuse our resources. The continuing deforestation of huge swathes of Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, and even in protected ancient forests such as Poland. New gigantic off-shore platforms near Australia are drawing natural gas resources to meet our insatiable greed for energy.

Lord, teach us stewardship and how to touch the earth lightly for the benefit of all and generations to come.

Lord, hear us and forgive us.

We give thanks for the work in the United Arab Emirates by scientists from Norway who have developed a method to pump liquid clay nano-particles into sandy desert so that crops are planted in seven hours instead of seven years. Water required to grow these crops is also reduced by up to 50%. The blooming of the desert is a closer reality.

We give thanks too for the female armed rangers in southern Zimbabwe who are protecting highly endangered elephants from poachers. Unlike their male counterparts, they are not succumbing to corruption or pressure but are arresting poachers even from their own villages or families. Often having survived abusive relationships, these women can now send their children to school and support them.

Lord, continue to strengthen those taking such creative action in solving problems we humans so often have created.

Lord, we bless your holy Name: hear us and bless us.

We continue to remember all who fear. Remember those experiencing natural disasters such as in Hawaii, U.S., and dust and electrical storms in India. Guide our leaders as we watch such political posturing as between North Korea and the rest of the world. Give us discernment in the Iranian nuclear discussions and in the latest financial crisis in Argentina. Comfort those experiencing the devastating wave of knife crimes in London, England among the young. Be with those imprisoned throughout the world without trial or justice, those lonely, those who feel they have no self-worth.

Help us to reach out as need presents itself in all its forms. We have heard your Truth. Prompt us to act on it and live it in our daily choices and decisions.

Lord, hear and answer our prayers for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ who opened the way for Your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, January 18, 2018

Prayer for Lovers

“Faith, Hope and Love Abide.

But the greatest of these is love.”

(1 Corinthians 13:13)

Holy and Loving God,

Your voice is so clear. Your message unavoidable: to love. We confess, Loving God, that we fall short despite your best efforts to teach. We heard your still small voice to Elijah. We heard your prophets. We read your laws on stone tablets. Your admonitions, your exhortations, your instructions all pointed to love.

“Honor your mother and father… love your neighbor… is it nothing, all ye who pass by?… love your enemies… do unto the least… thou shalt not kill or steal… love deeply… love covers a multitude of sins.

Holy God, You are clear. Yet, Loving God, after these thousands of years of inspired writing we falter in our love. The unloving words of leaders, the unloving acts of governments, the unloving excuses of bigotry, the unloving closing of borders and hearts and minds, the unloving treatment of our environment, unloving laws, unloving religion – all these break your loving and sacred heart.

God, restore us to loving You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Recommit us to loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Remind us that all the laws we could ever think of must hang on those two.

May such love come to both sides of Jerusalem, to all within Myanmar and Somalia, from Yemen to Venezuela, from the United States to Zimbabwe, from the Congo to Congress to Parliament, from all the seedbeds of nationalism and tribalism to casteism and racism, among immigrants and refugees the world over. In every place of strife and hatred and bitterness and division, may we believe your disciple who declared, “God is love. For if anyone says they love God but hate others they are liars. Whomever loves God loves, well, just loves”.

Holy and Loving, Loving God, may it be so.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 7th November 2017

Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:1-2, NRSV)

God of comfort, we live in a world that increasingly reveals its disconnection from you. We feel the deepening of the artificial divisions of nation, race, and religion as the Supreme Court in the United States allows a ban to go into effect that will prevent refugees and families from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States. Wars and the threat of new conflicts abound, and fears mount as countries like North Korea demonstrate their military might with ever-escalating missile tests. We cry out to you in our exile and ask, ‘How long, O Lord?’ Bring to us the comfort that you have promised. Be present with us in our pain and fear and worry. Cause us to see your face in the faces of our neighbors both near and far.

A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ (Isaiah 40:3-5, NRSV)

God of glory, we long for the day of your revelation. Your children around the world continue to suffer in places like Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, Myanmar, and so many others. The earth cries out for justice as natural resources are abused and protected lands are exposed, like in the United States’ Bears Ears National Monument, which is set to lose 85% of its acreage in a policy change. The impact of pollution grows in places like Delhi, India, where toxic air quality levels have threatened the health of residents for weeks. Guide us in preparing the way for your coming. Give us hearts for service and wisdom to act with justice.

Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
‘Here is your God!’ (Isaiah 40:9, NRSV)

God of hope, in this season of Advent, remind us of the glad tidings of great joy that come to us as a baby in a manger. Open our eyes to the good news of Christ’s presence in our lives and in the lives of all people, especially those who suffer and are in need. And give us hope in the glorious future of your coming kingdom, when your justice shall reign and your love shall transform the world.

See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep. (Isaiah 40:10-11, NRSV)

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 19, 2017

Dear Lord,

Your people in Puerto Rico and across the Caribbean have looked up into rain flooded skies and out onto destroyed homelands, waiting for water, food, shelter and the provision of medical care. Open the hearts of decision makers to release funds to continue the rescue, to bring relief and stability. Smooth the communications to move people to care as the USNS Comfort (US naval ship) waits for the needy. Help us to grow in compassion as a people as we listen to news from hurricane-devastated places and during the long recovery, not forgetting the gulf coast.

We pray for the Rohingya peoples who await smugglers to take them across the Naf River between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Others make the treacherous journey to safety through jungles and mountains and into refugee camps such as Balukali, Kutupalong and Nayapara, where the depth of need is continually expanding. Dear God, our Comforter and Protector, be with the nation of Bangladesh and the NGO’s as they summon all their capacity to meet the needs of these deeply suffering refugees. Surround exhausted families with nourishing sleep. Tend to the children who make up 60% of the refugees – lost and torn from their families. Open our eyes to the horror of genocide, as a people are being erased from Myanmar’s history and annihilated. Come Holy Spirit. Guide the world as it seeks to address this calamity.

Some look up into smoke and ash filled skies in the western United States barely escaping burning homes and a tortured landscape and yet 10,000 firefighters – including 100 women prisoners working as firefighters – move toward the flames. Renew their energy to endure and guard their steps. We are so grateful for their unique skills in this treacherous work. Dear God, provide shelter to families bereft of everything they owned. Sustain the communities in their great work of serving these families, providing food, a listening ear, counseling and guidance in next steps and getting in touch with family. Be with the 42 families who have lost loved ones and the 68 families with unaccounted for loved ones. Hold them in their distress.

Some hide in the shelter of darkness yet afraid. “Has the fighting stopped?” Oh Lord, how seemingly endless is the noise and dust and calamity of war and the horrific suffering, the interminable loss and degradation. We pray for the peoples caught in the wars within wars, in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region of Kirkuk, for the police killed in Taliban raids and bombings in the Paktia and Ghazni provinces in Afghanistan. We pray for the dead and wounded civilians as they were waiting to get their identity cards. We pray for an end to 6 years of suffering in the Syrian civil war displacing 6.3 million people internally, causing the deaths of 400,000 with more than 5 million Syrians fleeing the country.

Open the hearts of combatants to give safe humanitarian access. Our hearts are torn again as we hear about the global food crisis, severe food insecurity, and the increasing risk of full on famine in northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Some are too week to sit or even cry, hungry to the point of death. Oh God, you are listening. You surround them. You love them. Open our hearts. Help us to prayerfully consider our time, talent and treasure. Help us to share the wealth from our tables. Bring peace in those places where war creates famine, where conflict creates war, where war seems to be endless.

We watched with deep concern as Ireland and the UK received the effects of Hurricane Ophelia downgraded to a tropical storm. We are saddened at the loss of life as severe winds toppled trees on to cars. We are grateful for advanced warning such that the Irish Defense Forces were ready where needed and schools were closed keeping children safe. Be with families in their sudden grief and with those experiencing the deep deep losses in Portugal and Spain as wildfires fanned by the winds of the very same hurricane have brought further catastrophe. Again we pray for the 6,000 firefighters and nations called to come together in these wildfires. Be with the injured and their caregivers as severe burns are treated. Comfort those who are in mourning of the over thirty-two victims including a one-month old infant taken so quickly. Many weep for their cherished lands and fields, and livestock so vulnerable. Comfort them in their mourning. Give them your strength.

And your people in Mogadishu, where the Somali nation again suffers a bombing so despicable and barbaric with over 276 lives destroyed in an instant. Oh Lord, we take-in this news of the over 300 injured and suffering, and families still searching for the missing. We hear of the need for donor blood, the exhausted hospital staff, and how they keep going, as its populace is weeping, weeping, weeping. Help them as they assemble and arise as a people to discern steps for increased stability and safety in their nation. Comfort your people of Somalia in their great sorrow. Bring them peace.

Guide us in our faith. Help us to seek your will.

May we rush to understand one another, to love urgently, and to grow steadily in becoming more tolerant.

From you comes all blessings and life itself.

Amen.

World News in Prayer for Thursday, 7 September 2017

Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. -Ps.119:34

The commandments…are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” -Romans 13:9-10

Abba, Father of each one of us wherever we are in this blue planet you created for us even as you created us, listen to the cries of our hearts. As I struggle with difficulties and issues in my life outside my control, they are but pale echoes of what others are experiencing. But for each of us, at times the darkness threatens to overwhelm us.

God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer hope and clarity about the path to take.

I feel such a deep, burning anger at the ecological disasters yet again affecting so many of the poorest communities in the Caribbean, India, Sri Lanka, the USA; at the suffering of so many without access to medicine, clean water, and food in Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela, Somalia, Syria, and so many other countries. I am ashamed and appalled at the indifference and inaction of media and politicians. What can I, as one person on a limited income, do to tackle this other than pray, sign petitions to be presented to our seemingly-indifferent governments, make phone calls to my elected officials, send emails, write letters which never seem to get answered?

Jesus, you challenged the authorities by pointing to the difference between God’s laws and those of humankind.

God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer hope and clarity about the path to take.

At night, my sleep is broken as I hold up to You the prisoners of conscience disappeared without trace in numerous countries; the murder of so many such as Lauri Gankesh, an Indian female journalist and activist who spoke out against extremist Hindu violence; women and girls routinely sexually harassed and raped throughout the world and then being accused by males in positions of influence or power as ‘inviting it’; corruption in Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E.- the list seems endless…

Jesus, you contravened the religious ‘correctness’ of man’s religious orthodoxy, preferring always to follow God’s revealed will and laws.

God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer us hope and the courage to follow your example.

So many hearts are breaking in the United States at the suspension of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the act put into place during the previous administration in 2012 to permit undocumented young people, brought to America by their parents, to remain in the country at their jobs or in school or with their families. Uncertainty grips Latino communities as the threat of deportation looms large, loving God, as families fear being torn apart, in the name of national security and immigration reform.

Jesus, you welcomed everyone, including all people into the embrace of your loving care, reflecting the all-encompassing and inclusive love of God.

God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer us hope and the courage to speak up for justice.

Why do we, your followers, call you The Servant King but try to emulate, admire, and promote the values of self-obsessed ‘successful leaders’? Lord, forgive us and have mercy on our twisted understanding. So often we proclaim and teach human traditions instead of yours. We give thanks for all who dare to follow You in love and service, abandoning themselves to your will.

Lead us from death to life, from fear to love, from despair to hope, trusting in You. God of love and life, hear our cries, and let a glimmer of your light and love offer us hope and the courage to love our neighbor, whoever and wherever they are, as You love us. Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 27

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple….
My eyes shed streams of tears because your law is not kept. Ps 119: 130, 136

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. Romans 8:26

Forgive us, Lord, for reducing your might, majesty, and power to fit our comfort zone. The news of world events overwhelms us. We can be assailed by doubts, fear, and despair while choosing to say that you are God over all. So often this masks, however scantily, our lack of faith and understanding.

Forgive us, Lord, we implore you.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

This week, whether in the northern or southern hemispheres of our shared planet, bush-fires, floods, snow storms, thunder storms, drought, famine, and melting glaciers causing water levels to raise world-wide have brought havoc and devastation to millions. Behind such abstract figures are individual stories of people who are just like us.

We pray for and give thanks for all aid agencies and people helping their neighbours in this time of great need. Forgive us for our heedless use of resources not rightly ours. Teach us to touch the earth lightly and to live thoughtfully and in harmony with the generous provisions in Creation you have given for us and all your children.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

We hear of wars and rumours of wars and violence in Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt and at local levels in all of our own countries. Hatred and fear of difference make us dehumanise our neighbours and inflate ourselves. We continue to pray for justice for all regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or politics. We long for the time when this will be the norm throughout the world. Prince of Peace, jolt us awake when we casually slide into indifference and cruelty to each other. May we follow your example in our daily lives.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

We give thanks for the love and compassion for others often shown by wounded individuals. Jodi Ann Bickley from Birmingham, UK, who fights depression, has written over 4,000 letters of encouragement to complete strangers as part of her One Million Lovely Letters project started in 2013. These life-enhancing and life-changing letters have transformed the lives of the recipients and even helped youngsters in rural South Africa move beyond their experience of abuse and violence and marginalisation. Open us up to hear your prompts for loving acts you wish us to do and for the loving people you wish us to be.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

Open our ears, glorious Lord Christ, to hear the music of your voice above the chaos of this world: the power of your love, your mercy for each one of us, and the wisdom and wonders of your law and commandments which promises to lead us from darkness to light. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer Thursday, July 20, 2017

^“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

~ Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Heavenly Father, we come before you – worn, weary, and hungry for the fruit of the Holy Spirit to fill out hearts and minds. Accepting this fruit – incorporating these gifts into our daily lives – is so difficult when we see what is happening around the world:

~ We read that there are over twenty million people suffering severe hunger in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and Nigeria. The United Nations states that this is the worst hunger crisis since it was founded in 1945.

~ We are told that the hardest drought in more than twenty years is occurring in southern Europe and will cripple wheat and olive harvests in Italy and Spain.

~ We hear of the deaths of Hindu pilgrims in a bus crash in Kashmir, India, and of the deaths of a family in a flood in Arizona, US.

~ We see images of fires spreading rapidly, destroying hundreds of acres of land, and creating the evacuation of people from across western Canada, southern France, and California, US.

And yet, Lord, and yet… accepting Your fruit doesn’t have to be that difficult when we see what else is happening around the world:

~ We read that the International Rescue Committee and seven other organizations have joined forces to help fight the global food shortage in eastern Africa by providing water and food to hard-to-reach areas, providing sanitation support, and assisting with mobile health centers.

~ We are told that a group of conservationists in Iceland has formed the Icelandic Wildlife Fund so that they can fight plans to increase industrial-scale salmon farming in order to help preserve and protect fjords and rivers.

~ We hear that a Member of Parliament from Quebec addressed Canada’s House of Commons in Mohawk, speaking in the indigenous language for the first time since the Canadian legislature was established in 1867.

~ We see photographs of inter-species bonding which were taken at the Ngorongoro conservation area in Tanzania where, for the first time, a wild lioness was seen nursing a baby leopard.

Heavenly Father, we know there is political unrest, oppression, and violence of every kind in this world, but we also know there are people helping people every day, and people volunteering their time, talent, and money to make this world better. Lord, stop us from being worn and weary, erase any barriers stopping us from fully accepting Your gifts, open our hearts and minds, and fill our lives with the fruit of the Holy Spirit:

Help us love everyone the way You love us.

Help us lead joy-filled lives as an example to others that joy changes mindsets.

Help us live in peace and offer peace to each other as a way of life.

Help us be patient in every circumstance and with every person we meet.

Help us offer kindness to each other every chance we get.

Help us choose to be good to one another all the time.

Help us be faithful to You, Lord, and to our spouses, children, family, and friends.

Help us opt for gentleness whenever possible.

Help us practice self-control in every facet of our lives.

By leading lives filled with the fruit of the Spirit, Lord, help us change the world we live in and the lives of those around us.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, June 15, 2017

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore ask the overseer of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.
—Matthew 9.37-38

Harvest by Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Maybe the harvest is not bringing people to Christ
but gathering the fruits of the Spirit
God has sown in you
for the sake of the world.

Maybe it’s not an act of taking,
but receiving.

The harvest is plentiful
but few are the people who have gathered,
who have received the gifts, the grace,
the love growing in your heart,
and feasted on those fruits
to be strengthened to go out
and heal the wounded,
and be good news for the broken of the world.

The field stretches to the horizon.
There are more trees in this orchard
than stars in heaven.

What grace have you not yet harvested?
Go into that good harvest.
Here is a basket for your labors. Go.
Called together in the Spirit’s embrace, let us pray for the mending of God’s world.

Holy God, Loving God, Steadfast God, Compassionate God, looking at this world which You have created, this world over which You have given us stewardship, it is so easy to become discouraged and disheartened, to forget Your call to harvest Your grace, and to be good news for those who are broken. Sometimes all our tear-clouded eyes can see is the heartache and heartbreak which holds us in its thrall, making it difficult to see anything other than darkness and despair:

*Despair about an unknown blast which went off in eastern China, leaving at least seven people dead and over sixty-five others injured.

*Despair about a suicide car bombing into a hotel restaurant in Mogadishu, Somalia, where at least nineteen are dead and many others wounded

*Despair about the fire in the Grenfell Tower in London, England, where at least seventeen people have died and dozens of others are in hospitals, many of them in critical condition.

*Despair about the shooting in Virginia, US, at a Congressional baseball game practice, where six people were shot and the gunman was killed.

*Despair about Ohio, US student, Otto Warmbler, released by North Korea after seventeen months in captivity, who is in the hospital suffering from a severe neurological injury.

*Despair about the hundreds of civilian casualties in Raqqa, Syria, due to US-led air strikes.

*Despair about hot car deaths – deaths of children being left alone in vehicles during hot weather – occurring in the US, as three children have died in the last week.

*Despair about the road-rage shooting and killing of 2-year-old Laylah Washington of Memphis, Tennessee, US.

Holy God, Loving God, Steadfast God, Compassionate God, looking at this world which You have created, this world which You call us to co-create with You, open our eyes and our hearts to see the harvest of Your grace-filled love which is being made manifest in countless places, through countless people, children of Your own creation.

*The harvest of over one hundred and twenty migrants, who had been abandoned by traffickers without food or water in the Sahara desert, by Niger authorities.

*The harvest of the organization My Stealthy Freedom in Iran, led by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist who boldly organized #whitewednesdays to protest a law forcing Iranian women to wear head scarves.

*The harvest of the work of 26-year-old Rahmatullah Arman, who, through Teach for Afghanistan, has placed 80 graduates from Afghan universities into twenty-one schools to teach 23,000 students in the hope of reducing the country’s 60% adult illiteracy rate.

*The harvest of the election in Ireland of Leo Varadkar, of Indian descent, as the country’s youngest and first openly-gay prime minister.

Holy God, Loving God, Steadfast God, Compassionate God, looking at this world which You have created, this world which You love, we Your people reach out this day. We reach out with grief and gratitude, with worry and wonder, and with tears and triumph. We open ourselves to Your Spirit as it longs to fill us with the gifts of Your grace, to empower us with the strength and courage to speak truth, and to work for justice and the healing of wounds we encounter and cause. May it be so, today and every day.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, May 4, 2017

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. – John 10:10b

Never-ending God, we long for abundant life. All too often we settle for what our minds believe we deserve. But that isn’t abundance. Or, as we strive to live abundantly, we do so at the expense of others, or the environment, or even ourselves. In our human economy we see all things as finite. We believe there is just enough to go around, maybe not even enough. But in your divine economy there is enough for all to have full cups, overflowing cups…Help us, O God, to see that reality, to live into that truth!

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Forgive us, O God, when our near-sightedness leads to death and destruction. Comfort the family of Abdullahi Sheikh Abas who was mistaken for an Islamic extremist and killed in Somalia. Be with the families of all who are killed because of misunderstanding, prejudice and hate. Surround the families of the miners in Iran who gave their lives trying to save the lives of their trapped coworkers. Jesus said there was no greater gift than to give our lives for our friends. Yet we long for a world where that gift is rendered unnecessary. Be also with the people of the indigenous tribes of the Amazon, as they face attacks from outsiders. Be also with the activists and government officials in Brazil as they seek to find a way to help protect our neighbors.

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Support the community near Madrid, Spain, where there have been explosions at a chemical plant. Injuries to the workers and to the environment demonstrate the frailty of our search for abundance. Help us to turn our focus to you, O God. Be also with the people of Beijing and Northern China as they suffer under a dust storm, and the people in the Midwest United States as they deal with flooding. Help us, Sustaining God, to see how we can support the abundance of life on the Earth, and not diminish it.

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Jesus came that we might have abundant life. Empower us, O God, to work toward co-creating that abundance with you today, and every day.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, April 6, 2017

The Scottish theologian, William Barclay, suggested using ‘the mind of God’ instead of ‘the Word’ for Jesus. And so John 1:1, 2-5, 14 reads

In the beginning was the mind of God,… 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it….. 14 The mind of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Philippians 2:5 says: ‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus’.

Father/Mother God, as we try to come to rest before You, we come not alone but accompanied by the throngs of people near and far who impact our lives and consciousness. Help us to be still and put aside our need to fix things, sort out situations, come up with solutions, and allow Your Holy Spirit indwelling in us, to be freed to be…as You are.

God, indwelling in us, help us to be still and know, in the depths of our being, that You are God. May Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus.

From the throng surrounding us come people across the globe who are suffering from violent events in nature during this last week…

In particular we hold to Your light and loving care those killed and rendered homeless by floods, cyclones, landslides, droughts, famines and snow storms in New Zealand, Australia, Mocoa in Columbia, Catacaos in Peru, Somalia, Yemen, New England in the USA. As well as the immediate tragic events, the long-term consequences can be catastrophic.

Lord, you have given us humans custody of Your creation and as provision for our needs, but not our greed-bloated wants. Inspire and move us to do what we can now for those in great need, and to amend our lifestyle choices to provide a healthy legacy for our children and grandchildren. Give wisdom to lawmakers to provide protection for this, our shared planet, so richly endowed by you.

Lord God, may Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus.

We give thanks for the very promising progress by scientists in London, UK in making a working and cost-effective desalinization filter from graphene oxide. Almost 800 million people desperately need access to clean drinking water, the lack of which currently causes the death of 1000 children every day.

Jesus, You are the spiritual water of life. Help us to work together to provide water essential for physical life and health for our sisters and brothers throughout the world.

Lord God, may Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus.

We hear again and again of gas attacks and hate-fueled violence in Syria, Russia, Chechnya, Pakistan, the UK, and so many other places, attacks on your children created in Your image, yet perpetrated by others made in Your image who have chosen to turn away from Your reality of truth, light and love. Lord, have mercy on the perpetrators and all of us who condone such evil by our silence and inaction. We give thanks for those medics and others who seek to bring help and care in the middle of such carnage and devastation. Help us to seek Your mind as to the way forward, to bring light into the darkness. Guide our political leaders to know Your mind as they struggle to deal with these situations, that they may not be guided solely by fiscal and trade benefits which seem to help our nations in the short-term. You are inviting us to live with the long-term infinite viewpoint which is Yours beyond time and space and is one of justice and righteousness.

Lord God, may Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus.

As we come to Holy Week, where we have the greatest evidence of love conquering evil, Archbishop Desmond Tutu reminds us in his prayer:

“Goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours, victory is ours
through Him who loved us.”*

Lord God, may Your mind be in us as it was in Jesus. AMEN