This prayer is voiced by Kristi McLelland. She captured the featured image for this post of the flower growing out of a rock in Israel. The image is both beautiful and rugged, symbolizing the hope for peace to emerge out of great hardship.

In October, at the start of the Israel-Hamas war, I was scheduled to be in Israel to teach. Instead, I was sent home to Tennessee after landing in New Jersey en route to Tel Aviv. A few months later, war and heartache still persist in the Middle East. I find myself praying so earnestly for peace and for the peacemakers. I feel a profound and fierce mixture of lament and hope, grief and expectancy.  

If you will join me, I believe this is a moment for us to engage the living God in intercession for all involved. We pray alongside each other for the kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.  

It moves me that Jesus prayed. He is still praying, making intercession for us as He sits at the right hand of the Father. As YOU pray today for peace in the Middle East, take courage that JESUS is praying too. We are not alone. The Light of the world is praying for us all. I’m grieving hard and well. I’m giving lament its time with me. But hope sits with me too. I am downcast but not overthrown. We are not alone. He is here. 

Father God,  

We are grieving, hurting, aching for those suffering in the Middle East. For those who long for peace.  

And we are also fiercely hoping and praying with expectancy because we know Jesus IS faithful and His kingdom IS coming on earth as it is in heaven. You have not failed the world, and You will not fail the world now. 

As our hearts ache and we desperately long for peace, help us to practice “remembering.” When we do not know what to do or how to move forward, help us to slow down and give ourselves to remembering Your faithful record in our lives—remembering the moments lived that forged our faith in fire.  

Give us the courage and strength to “pray without ceasing” for peace in the Middle East. We are counting on those promised new mercies. And while we pray for those we do not know, help us to hope forward, courage forward, and pray forward without ceasing here at home. 

The words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks have been on my heart—“We can curse the darkness or we can light a light.” Father, help us to light lights wherever we are, however we can. Move us to action to look around and see who needs help, who needs encouragement, who needs a hand, who needs hope. We pray that as we light lights, that we too are moved by their glow. We invite heaven to come down to earth. Help us to care for one another through You. 

Father, we put ALL of our hope into the resurrected Jesus. Help us to take heart! Because the Wedding Supper of the Lamb is coming. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen. 

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