Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual
and the community must enter every day.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
and the community must enter every day.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Before You Ask
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)
Many people think their prayers won’t work if they don’t utter them clearly enough, or fail to explain to God exactly what they mean, or don’t speak loudly enough to him with sufficient earnestness. But when this happens, prayer becomes so exaggerated that our Savior even forbids it.
Obviously Jesus does not want to discourage us from praying. His point is that when we pray we must have a sense of proportion. Once we have prayed, we must be quiet. We need to be like the farmer who has sown his seed. Help will come only when you are quiet in faith. Also in your sickness or with other needs, learn to be still and look to the Kingdom of God.
We can share our needs with the Father in a few words, without making a fuss, and rest assured that God already knows what we need and what he will do to help us. We don’t have to explain our requests in great detail to God, or try and make quite sure that he knows our needs. God knows about even the smallest matters and takes them straight into his heart. We can turn to him by glancing Heavenward, with no words at all. We can do this even when we pray about something concrete and tangible, or about something that specifically troubles us. We may realize that what we thought we needed is actually not necessary and that we can find a way right in the midst of how things are now.
This doesn’t mean that we just let things happen – as if everything will come of its own accord without our longing for it. Nor should we just cast a brief and hurried request at God’s feet. When this happens, we too easily lose sight of God, assume that everything comes to us without his help, and we forget to thank him. Then we cease to have a believing heart and are consequently not true children of God.
Jesus said, “Before you ask him.” Therefore we do need to make our requests known to him, otherwise many things will not be given that could have been given. It never displeases God when we come to him with our heartfelt requests. A real child asks for everything, knowing God has an ear for him. We should bring all our burdens and needs to him, for at the very least this helps to make us ever more aware that in all things God is the giver.
God always has our interest in mind. He carries our various needs with fatherly concern, eagerly waiting for us to come to him. He has not forgotten us. And when we feel tempted to think so, then all the more we should remember that he knows it all and cares for us. In fact, he knows much more about us and our needs than we do. Simple, childlike prayer is enough to move his heart, give you something out of the fullness of his compassion, and save you from all sorts of fear and trouble.
(Johann Christoph Blumhardt)
(The God Who Heals, Words of Hope for a Time of Sickness)
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Julia
Prayer for Palestine and Israel
Then justice will dwell in the land and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. The effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. (Isaiah 32:16-17)
O God of life and love and peace, we witness the violence and injustice in your Holy Land and our hearts break.
Our hearts break for all Palestinians: for the victims of violent attacks from Israelis, for those who have endured decades of occupation and oppression, for those whose homes and olive orchards have been demolished, for those who languish in Israeli prisons and in the “open air prison” of Gaza, for those without nearly enough water and electricity and medical care, for those who are refugees, long displaced from their homes.
Our hearts break for the Jewish people of Israel: for the victims of violent attacks from Palestinians, for those who live with fear and insecurity, for those who re-live the trauma of the Holocaust over and over.
Our hearts break for the wider world: for those who are indifferent to the pain and suffering in your Holy Land, for those who distort or turn their eyes from truth, for those who fail to see the humanity of all your children.
Heal us all, O God. Heal the broken and comfort the sorrowful. Give hope to the hopeless and courage to the fearful. Strengthen the peacemakers and reconcilers. Confront those who practice injustice and commit violence.
We especially pray that weapons of war be laid down, that walls of separation and the machinery of occupation be dismantled, that prisoners be released, that demonizing of “the other” cease, and that political leaders seek the good of all people in Palestine and Israel.
We pray also for ourselves: that our eyes will be opened to the ways in which our beliefs and actions have contributed to injustice and to violence.
O God, whose heart breaks for the world, may your justice dwell in the land. May your righteousness abide in fruitful fields. May the effect of righteousness be quietness and trust forever. May the effect of justice be peace — enduring peace.
Amen.
(Mennonite Central Committee)