Endless Prayer

Prayer is vital to who we are! As we connect to God through our spirituality, we are beckoning to a force beyond our physical world. All world religions have this concept in common. We recognize that we cannot reach the best version of ourselves on our own, but we need God’s help to center us and bring into focus God’s will. When we pray, we are not asking God to change our circumstances, we are asking God to reorient us toward what truly matters… love, peace, and harmony. Prayer leads to a deep-rooted and divinely inspired perspective.

This year, Lamb of God’s Board of Trustees has made it their goal to focus on the development of the congregation’s spirituality. You may be thinking, “isn’t that goal a given every year?” That’s true, but sometimes even the most faithful people get stuck on autopilot. If cultivating spirituality is not done intentionally, then it cannot be done meaningfully. Understanding the goal of spirituality might be easy but executing it can be challenging. As people of God, we cultivate our spirituality by praying unceasingly.

With things like the risk of global war on the horizon, prayer feels like the only response that we can do. Now more than ever, we must turn to prayer, trusting in God’s peace and strength to guide us through these uncertain times. The threat of nuclear weapons drastically changes the fragility of our global conflicts. As media outlets retreat to their partisan corners, it is impossible for us to see the full picture. Fear is a perfectly logical response to uncertainty. The key question is… how do we keep this fear from paralyzing us, or worse, respond with aggression?

Prayer is the only answer. Embedded in prayer is hope. We are calling on God to change our hearts, the hearts of nation leaders, and the hearts of all people around the world. We pray that God will reorient us. It is prayer that will keep violence and retaliation at bay. It is prayer that drives a spoke in the wheels of the military-industrial complex. There are no guns, no bombs, and no nuclear weapons in the Kingdom of God. Is that naïve of me to say? Sure, but we cannot afford to lose sight of God’s vison for the world.

Maybe the right question is not “how can we live in a violent world?” But instead “how do we live in a world where violence does not seem necessary?” Fear can never lead to true peace. The best that fear can offer is short spurts of people quietly plotting their retaliation. This is not peace. This kind of peace is an allusion because it is brought about by dominance. As Christians, we are called to be people of true peace. The vision of God is “shalom,” where peace implies genuine harmony with one another. It is in the face of such overwhelming danger that our first response must be prayer.

Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, to pray for those who are in authority, and to seek justice and mercy amid challenging times. The apostle Paul urges us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17), and in this time of uncertainty, we must take these words to heart. May we be reminded that our true citizenship is not in this world, but in the Kingdom of God. May the love of God consume our hearts and pour out into the streets. Dear friends, be assured that God’s love will never fail and that God will carry us through.

In reverence,

Pastor Lucas

Photo by Brandon Hoogenboom