“You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you.” Well there you go. Sometimes we don’t need to fight a battle. But we still need to show up.

Then again there are battles that scare the wits out of us, but God didn’t put us here to run away. When we face something we’re uncertain of, it’s a good thing to know we don’t face it alone. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Dear Heavenly Father,

What a ragtag bunch we are, but we’re not backing down. We can see there’s a battle to be waged all around us. The battle is for truth and righteousness, souls, and freedom.

Our nation is infiltrated with communism. Our main news has become propaganda and we don’t even know when that happened. Other reporters are now censored by technology we’ve become dependent on. Our morals slid so far down, we’re now fighting for a baby not to be killed at birth rather than at conception, a battle for life that should never have been lost in the first place. Sexual promiscuity and perversion is rampant and people don’t even recognize it. Innocents are trafficked. Little is regarded as holy. The list – oh dear Lord – the list is endless! Like Hezekiah did, we lay that terrible list before you. We plead for Your intervention!

Use us however you see fit to reveal good in its beauty and to unveil evil in its horror. To not shrink back from truth-telling, but to do so with as much gentleness as we can manage. But it’s awful, isn’t it? And awful isn’t often well-handled with a gentle hand. So give us discernment as we tell the truth which sets us free.

We decree and declare by the purifying blood of Jesus and in His mighty Name that chaos in all forms will dissipate into nothing and order will prevail, that devastation will be set right, and that righteousness will spread across this one nation under God. We ask You to crush evil completely. In ourselves. In family. In church. In government. In academia. In media. In entertainment. In business. We don’t want even a corner or crumb left of what dishonors Your Name.

We call down angels from heaven to work and fight alongside us. We ask for wisdom, discernment, and insight. We thank You that in our weakness, You are our strength.

You fought the battles of Israel alongside their mighty men and their quick-thinking women. Sometimes You threw the enemy into confusion and they didn’t need to fight at all; only be still. We’d prefer that of course. Ha. But we’re here. We want to be useful. Tell us go and we’ll go. Stay and we’ll stay. Speak and we’ll speak. And we’ll talk with You and listen for You the whole time, knowing that this battle truly belongs to You.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name and for Your glory, Amen

II Chronicles 20:17; Ephesians 6:12; II Kings 19:14-15; Image: Ethan Jones from Pexels

Someone should make a movie called Forgiveness: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. We’ve all encountered it: Having to face the ugliness of hurt, pushing through the pain, and exerting the discipline of forgiving someone who did us wrong – bad, if you will. And when we come to the place of letting go, cutting the cord, handing it all to the Lord, it really can be something very good. Jesus reminds us to forgive others so that we will be forgiven.

We know all about feeling we’ve been wronged. But we need to be truthful about being on the other end of it: of having wronged someone. Somehow it often doesn’t seem as serious to us when we’re on the other side of the story; but our excuses are a security blanket. As we continue in the shaking of our nation, we need to acknowledge a shaking in ourselves, as well. We look within and wade through every single sin, small or great against another. It’s not comfortable and can even be bad and ugly. And we repent, which leads to goodness.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We hate any damage that comes between us and another. We’ve cried, we’ve carried gut sadness and anger, we’ve spent too much time reviewing something that happened or was said or done. We know the hurt. But we also know how much You have forgiven – so much more than we are faced with. Maybe they haven’t or will never ask forgiveness. Maybe they don’t care. Maybe they still intend the hurt. But we don’t want the chain that comes with unforgiveness. We’ll leave that for them to deal with, and choose to walk into the beautiful light of forgiveness. Here and now we truly and completely forgive ________ and we wipe that slate clean. And should that hurt reappear we resolve to wipe it clean again. And again. Until it dissolves. Because Satan is the great accuser, but we don’t want to be like him. We want to be like You.

And we look inside ourselves and we confess every single thing. We list them here. ____________ And we are so sorry for the sadness or hurt or harm we have done. Please forgive us. We ask for healing for the person we have offended. We ask for help and blessing for them. As far as the east is from the west please remove our sins from us. We resolve to be better.

We know that in Your justice is mercy, the mercy for which we are all so very grateful. We pray that in our intention to show mercy, we will not get in bed with the devil. We will not agree with his intentions in order to make ourselves feel open-hearted. We will not pretend wrong is okay as long as we love. We will not dismiss holiness as outdated. We will be defensive of Your honor. We don’t want to hurt You or cause offense to Your Name. And we need Your insight, discernment, and wisdom in this. We ask for Your mind in these matters so that we don’t make light of the sin You died for just to make ourselves feel generous.

Thank You, Lord, for forgiving us. You are the Author and Finisher of our faith. We love You so much. So very much.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, 1966, story by Sergio Leone and Luciano Vincenzoni. Screenwriters: Sergio Leone, Luciano Vincenzoni, Furio Scarpell, Agenore Incrocci. Movie directed by Sergio Leone; Scripture: Matthew 5; Image: Fair Use.

Remember your first love? That heart palpitating experience of seeing, talking with, or even thinking of that special person? Your mind is focused on the lovely person of your affection, you find their quirks amusing, and you see that person as they can be rather than as they are in their current very ordinary state. Ain’t love grand?

Revelation 2 reminds us of another first love. It cautions us to not forsake the love we had at first; both love for Christ and for each other. As we work our way through these tumultuous days, let’s help each other remember love.

Our Dear Heavenly Father,

When we sit in Your presence and just rest in it; sensing Your Spirit, knowing Your love in a palpable way, all is well. And we know that is the way You meant it to be: for us to be in You and You in us and love permeating the atmosphere. We want it always.

Help us to hold on to that, Father. During days of frustration and discouragement and whatever else, whether good or bad, we want to first spend time with You. We do not want to lose that precious time when Your presence is very near. It is breath to us. It is life to us.

And when we’re with fellow Christians during those times when we are all in one accord, it’s a taste of heaven. We all know it. We can feel it. We care about what’s going going each other’s lives and we share our own. We raise our voices in song to You in a beautiful offering of praise, and it fills us with indescribable joy.

Despite disagreements we find ourselves in these days, help us, oh dear Lord help us to not lose our love for each other. Help us to live out our love for You. You are love; but we are weak, and we find ourselves swimming in a lake of disagreement. It’s easy to lose our love for each other – that sweet love You teach us when we’re in Your presence. So please help us during these days to discipline ourselves to love despite the pull of disunity from disagreement. Help our love to cover a multitude of wrongs. Before we do anything else, help us to first – love!

In Jesus Name

Amen

Image: jamie-street-C6CVXJMXwqs-unsplash

In the midst of the turmoil in our nation, I’ve grown to more fully appreciate our country’s citizens. Strangers all, we are together in the current troubles, and people are showing a fascinating variety of responses: from expressing indignation to being nonplussed to an amusing ability of humor and grace. And to my delight, many are coming to or rediscovering their faith. Some of us for whom faith is long familiar, are, rightly so, getting a remedial lesson in trust.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We can look back on life and recall some times when changes that seemed big – were big, actually – threatened to overwhelm us like rough waves on the deck of a tossing ship. And we worried and even whined to You. And You scolded us for whining, but we didn’t stop much. Sorry about that. Working on it. But looking back, those changes didn’t wash us out to sea. They just made things slippery for awhile and made our legs a little stronger. Not all, but some of those times, we even discovered how beautiful change can be.

And here we are again. Praying the same thing over and over and asking for things we don’t have the wisdom to ask for and worrying ourselves sick. We come boldly to Your throne and we believe that those things that are righteous in Your sight are good to request. We do, but with worrying hearts. But You remind us we are strong, and where we falter, You’re right there to catch us. You call us higher.

So we ask – no, we declare – that during this time of great shaking in our nation and in the world that we will not be driven by the wind and tossed; asking for one thing, then changing our minds and asking for another; then throwing up our hands and repeating “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” like a mantra. We will remember Your might and Your power and Your good purposes. We will remember the big and small ways You’ve kept us standing. And stand we will. WE WILL TRUST.

In Jesus Name

Amen

Photo: Amber Waterman