One in every of my favourite books within the Bible is Nehemiah, and some of the highly effective and memorable components of the guide is the account of the individuals of Jerusalem who gathered to listen to the prophet Ezra learn the books of the Regulation, which resulted in all of the individuals confessing their sins as a nation.
The message reminds us to not make small issues out of religion.
All of the Israelites who had returned from exile gathered, remembered and returned to the Lord. In fact, our context may be very totally different. But maybe many within the UK church at the moment have misplaced the sense that we can also collect, keep in mind and return as individuals, not simply as people; because the Church, not solely as a set of church buildings.
Collectively on the nationwide stage we can provide thanks for the way we have now been blessed in some ways as a nation and as a church. However we are able to additionally collect to hope for a breakthrough, for provision, safety, and an actual sense of hope all through the land. Gathering, remembering and returning to the Lord is maybe what the Lord needs for us to do on this season.
And we’re getting into a brand new season—a season that desperately wants God's intercession and intervention.
In October, the Parliament returns from the political convention season. We’ve got a brand new authorities and a Home of Commons the place many of the MPs are model new. Every of our elected politicians, nationwide and native, skilled or new to their function, wants our prayers for the approaching season.
The issues earlier than us appear monumental. There appears to be an infinite listing of insurmountable issues, from riots to monetary black holes, from struggling public providers to humanitarian crises arising from armed battle.
And the temptation is to both ignore the brokenness or cling to false hope; trusting solely your self, your idols, and your tribe, or in search of distraction and hoping the issues will go away—or that another person will.
However now shouldn’t be the time to show away from brokenness. Merely denying or condemning evil shouldn’t be the best way of Jesus. When confronted with insurmountable obstacles, I’m not paralyzed—I pray. It’s a prayer that retains me in an area the place I’m aware of how and why many issues are damaged, however I’ve hope that issues can and can change.
That’s the reason I’m satisfied that prayer, together with gracious love in motion, is what we want proper now.
Charles Spurgeon as soon as wrote that “prayer is the slender nerve that strikes the muscle of omnipotence.” We and our prayers are certainly slender nerves, and these are nervous occasions when we have to shout on the almighty muscle.
Particular person prayer is a privilege, and praying with pals in twos, threes, small teams, or congregations is an excellent encouragement and may be immensely highly effective. However think about what a nation may accomplish in prayer. It may change that nation. Not simply to encourage options to political, financial or social challenges, however to heal divisions, change hearts and minds and be a catalyst for actual lasting change.
It’s the shared perception in the necessity to cry out to the Lord in prayer, and the idea that the almighty muscle can obtain immeasurably greater than we are able to ever think about, that impressed many nationwide ministries and leaders to return collectively to name for a nationwide week of prayer from 12 to October 20.
I consider the Nationwide Week of Prayer is a motion introduced collectively by the Holy Spirit, united by the imaginative and prescient that God can do outstanding issues if we come to Him humble, repentant, and pray for Jesus to remodel lives.
Details about the Nationwide Week of Prayer may be discovered on a devoted web site (www.nationalweekofprayer.org) with data on find out how to get entangled, how to enroll in occasions, and different sources that will help you be part of one thing that might to be actually outstanding and distinctive.
Because the Government Director of CARE, I’m proud to be totally behind the week, providing sources for individuals who wish to pray for nationwide leaders and supporting different occasions that may happen in the course of the week. And I used to be humbled by how so many individuals got here collectively so shortly with a way of want and hope for what God may do on this second. Be part of us and take a step of religion to alter the nation.
Ross Hendry has labored in and round politics for the previous thirty years and is at present Chief Government of CARE (www.care.org.uk), which is supporting the Nationwide Week of Prayer from 12-20 October. Ross Hendry is on the planning committee for the Nationwide Week of Prayer.
