Our news screens have recently been dominated by stories of the attacks on Israel and the response from Israel. We may feel helpless, but we can do that most practical thing and pray to our Lord. He is all good, always good, and is sovereign over all things as he moves them to his good purposes in Christ.
Here is a prayer for adaptation and use in our services of worship, along with family and private prayers:
Dear God and father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prince of peace who died to reconcile humanity to yourself and to one another.
Our hearts break as we witness the events in Israel and Gaza and watch the fruits of the fall play out in violence of humanity against humanity. Before you, we lift up the various peoples of Israel, Jew and non-Jew, whose lives are lost or upended by the incursions from Gaza. And we also lift up those Palestinian people who are non-combatants, but who suffer in the violence.
We pray:
- For the conflict soon to end
- For your blessing on the peacemakers
- For no further escalations to other nations and peoples
- For relief agencies as they tend to the bereaved, the wounded and those who have lost livelihood and home.
- That Australia will be spared divisiveness overflowing from the middle east conflict
- For Christian Israelis and Christian Palestinians – that together they live out the gospel of reconciliation in Jesus and so model your path of peace
And as this unfolds, we pray ‘come Lord Jesus come’. Amen.
David Burke
Moderator-general