Pray for strength not destruction
Dear Editor,
Funny how lately many professed Christians have been exercised about the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the Hamas-Israel conflict, and more recently, the magnitude-5.6 earthquake that occurred in Jamaica.
Funny, because such reactive responses over world developments by members of the clergy seem to betray a lack of conviction in the very Bible prophecies they often cite. For instance, many will quote easily the sign of the last days recorded at Matthew 24:4-8 in Jesus’s response to his disciples, in which he said that nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another… and because of increasing lawlessness, the love of the greater number will grow cold.
If such prophecies are inevitable, why then the unusual alarm and shock reactions? How does one, who is a professed Christian, reconcile the disparity between what is bound to happen and a belief in his own ability to even reverse it by many unrelenting prayers?
The inexorability of Bible predictions, such as 2 Timothy 1-4, which forecast that in the last days there will be critical times that are hard to deal with, seems to make occasions like prayer breakfasts powerless against the unfolding of the times.
It would, therefore, seem more appropriate, from the biblical perspective, to pray for strength to wrestle with the moments and climb the mountains rather than to vanquish them by means of fierce prayers. Unless you can, of course, have your cake and eat it.
Homer Sylvester
New York, USA
h2sylvester@gmail.com
