World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, March 11, 2016

 

Alpha and Omega God, I realize again and again that I am a person of privilege.  I am confronted with the fact that I have so much, so many opportunities.  I am convicted by my daily “concerns;” which restaurant will I go to for dinner, will my latest on-line shopping purchases be delivered on my time table, what errands can I delay so that I will not have to drive in the rain.  My concerns, my worries, my fears all seem so small in comparison with the needs of the world.

And yet, I cling to them.  Because, Creator God, I hardly know how to respond to these greater troubles.  I am overwhelmed by the need, the fragmentation of our world.  I feel so very powerless in the face of the disaster and calamity.  Many times I wish I could run away and hide from the pain.

Like Elijah, I long to hear your voice, O Holy One:

I seek you as the winds of change and turmoil rip across the lands in:

Somalia, Tunisia, Libya, Nigeria, Myanmar, Australia, North Korea, France, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States.

I wonder where you are as I hear reports of the long road to recovery from earthquakes years ago in:

Haiti, Japan, and Chile.

I long for your presence in the firestorms of our lives:

Dreaded diagnoses of cancer, polio, malaria, HIV; uncertainty of unemployment; identity theft; bullying; and the literal fires that tear across fields, and forests, that destroy homes and lives, whether set by accident or intentionally.

I cry out to you, God of all, “Are you here?  Are you working to redeem this broken world?”

Time and time again, you quietly answer with the very essence of your nature, “I AM.”

Because you are, Ever-present One, may I be as well.  Free me from the shackles of my privilege and propel me from my comfortable nest into the windy, unsettled and fire-ravaged world of yours.

Mine may be one small voice, but let it be a voice for wholeness, for healing, for peace, for love, for You!