02/24/2023
Thursday 9-Friday 9 Hagar. She was used, abused, mistreated, and then cast out. It wasn’t right that Sarai used her. It wasn’t right for Hagar to be so smug and taunting. But, people are human, and we can all do trash things. And then when God extends His hand to us in a moment of grace, even in our mess, we know He is for us. He was for Sarah and Abraham. And He was for Hagar. He saved her and Ishmael from death and ENSURED her lineage would survive. And yet, here we are, thousands of years later still fighting. We are all precious in His sight, red and yellow, black and white. We grew up singing about it. The Palestinians, Israelites, Saudis, Iranians, Iraqis, etc, they are all precious in His sight. The Bible tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. So, we pray for the active work on all sides to get to the goal of peace. Peace is a supernatural thing. If there was peace in the world right now- no wars- that would be a miracle. It will take God’s power, love and respect for one another, and willingness on both sides of any war for it to stop- or one side gets demolished. We pray against annihilation. We pray for peace. We pray for peace in the boundary lines. We pray peace for neighboring lands. We pray for the people. In war, people suffer. We pray for protection. We pray against the education of hate and pray for the education of solution. We pray God raises up solution makers. We also pray about the wars in other countries. Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine and Russia. There are SO MANY armed conflicts in so many countries in Africa. We call an end to violence. We call for the leaders to put ego behind them and their people before them. We pray they submit to the spirit of God.