16th October 2023

A PRAYER FOR ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Dear Lord, our hearts are heavy with pain and sorrow, yet we are grateful to be sure that You are infinitely more sad and pained than we can ever be. As we hear and see more and more of horrific cruelties committed on innocent people in both Israel and Gaza, thousands killed and wounded, armies clashing, destruction of whole towns and neighbourhoods, our minds scream out, ‘No! Please, no more!

When You gave your created people free will so that we could turn to You freely in love and gratitude, You knew we would use that free will to act wickedly, so You also made us able to be sorry and ashamed and ask forgiveness. Now we lift up to you all those suffering and all those inflicting suffering and we pray for you Holy Spirit to be inspiring and empowering us all to repent and ask forgiveness.

We pray for all those working to bring help and healing, needing your power, energy and skill for the task. We thank you that your free will also inspires people to acts of the utmost generosity and sacrifice. We pray especially for people in authority to act generously and decisively to pull back from war and work towards peace.

We pray that in our own thoughts and words we too may not be self-righteously judging those who have acted so badly, but seeking to understand their motives and situation however irrational it may seem to us, always looking for ways to restore well-being and harmony (shalom).

Lesley Fuller