Pray that God will do what God has done

How do we pray for Israel? How do we pray for our own country? What should we be asking for specifically?

My husband Jim was recently speaking about the issues surrounding the conflict in Israel. Truthfully, peace seems to be an impossibility unless God intervenes. I watch the news reports from some of our significant college campuses. Many of these schools are considered “Ivy League,” and one reporter called these disturbances “Poison Ivy.” 

How do we pray for nations of people to unite when unity isn’t their goal?

First, pray for God’s priorities to become yours.

Jesus taught his followers to pray saying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done,” and then said “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus was teaching them to pray that God would be the ruler, the king of everyone on earth, just as he is the king of heaven. 

God can’t change the hearts of people until they submit to him as their sovereign king. In heaven God is the only king. On earth, we must make the daily, moment-to-moment, free-will choice to make him our king. Even after we have asked Jesus to be our Lord, we must yield to him as Lord while we dwell on this side of heaven.

In other words, the thing we should be praying for when we pray for the nations is that they would realize there is one true God who because of his great love, gave us his only Son. While Jesus was preparing to die, he prayed for the unity of the body of Christ and for all people (John 17). 

We should pray for what Jesus prayed so that God will do what God has done. The book of Acts describes the early Church, the body of new covenant believers, saying, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common” (Acts 2:44).

Second, believe that God will do what God has done.

American Christians tend to underestimate the value of faith and over-estimate the value of hard work. Both are important, but faith matters more. Why?

The author of Hebrews wrote, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

This is a tricky life lesson that I had to learn the hard way. As a busy preacher’s wife, I spent a lot of time doing the work of the ministry. I believed if I was busy, then I was serving God, and he must be pleased with my efforts.

In my personal testimony, I speak about the time I almost died of pneumonia because I just had too much to do to stop and go find a doctor to help me (we had recently moved to Atlanta and I had not yet found a doctor). I just assumed I would get better and kept going with my busy schedule filled with responsibilities I had decided were God’s. 

It took a month to recover, and I spent that time with God. I remember praying a broken prayer. I was working hard but lacked the joy I saw in the book of Acts. I was willing to serve but what was I supposed to be doing? I knew I had been given the Holy Spirit, but I didn’t know if I was Spirit-led. I had godly intentions, but I had placed my faith in my ideas about God rather than trusting his voice to lead.

One of the most important times of my spiritual life was that month I spent learning that God was the king of my life and the director of my path. My ideas had placed me on a treadmill, and I was running hard but never moving forward with God’s plan. My entire life and ministry were changed as a result of learning to place my faith in God’s ideas and not my own.

If we want to learn how God works, look at how God worked in Scripture. He told Moses to step into the Red Sea and trust him and start walking. He told Joshua to step into the flooded Jordan and all would be well. He told Jonah to go to the worst, most violent city and tell his enemies that they were all wrong. He told the disciples to walk away from their profitable fishing business and become fishers of men. 

Why does faith in God matter most? Because God asks us to do some things that we would never do ourselves, apart from our faith in God. If you have never experienced a faith assignment, you are missing out on the most significant joy this life can provide.

God still does what he has done in the past.

Finally, trust God to do great things, because he has done great things.

The conflict in Israel and the conflicts we see on our college campuses seem to have no lasting solutions. That is exactly what the disciples must have felt when the stone was rolled in front of the entrance to Jesus’ tomb. 

The disciples lacked faith, but only until Sunday. They didn’t have the proof that you and I enjoy. But, have we allowed biblical history to guide our faith? Have we trusted in our own thoughts more than God’s? Do we work for God, or do we allow him to work through us?

How will God answer our prayers for the leaders in this world? God will do great things we cannot imagine.

After Stephen’s stoning the church was scattered (Acts 8:1). The young man who was surrounded by the cloaks of others became the great persecutor, the great terrorist, of the New Testament. Saul of Tarsus, with amazing energy and intellect, served his ideas about God rather than God himself. Then Jesus showed up on the road to Damascus and changed everything.

How do we pray for the world leaders of today? How do we pray for the young people on our college campuses? How do we pray for today’s terrorists?

We pray for Jesus to meet them in a miraculous way, just like he met Saul of Tarsus. We pray for the Light of the world to chase away the darkness from the minds of people. We pray for God’s people to be Spirit-led followers of their king. We pray that faith will drive our thoughts and ideas because we know that God wants to do, and will do, what God has always done. The great terrorist of the early Christian church became the great theologian of Scripture. 

How do we pray for our world today? We pray that God will do what God has done.

How can we pray for Israel?

It is difficult to know how to pray against pure evil. Sometimes anger and wrath can lead our prayers instead of God. I’ve often said Satan isn’t concerned with what side of an issue in which we choose to sin. If we sin, evil wins regardless of our position. 

The nation of Israel is once again drawing the attention of the world. They are completely justified in their anger and their desire to protect their people. At the same time, God’s people are not to respond to evil with evil of their own.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to sit in a room and make decisions that will ultimately lead to people losing their lives. Can Israel fight their enemy without harming their own people? Will Israel seek God’s strength and wisdom or rely on their own? I was preparing to write this blog post and I searched for Bible verses about peace, enemies, end times, and wars in an effort to discern God’s truth for such terrible times. 

At the end of my reading, praying, and study, I could only settle on one certain truth. As I pray for the people of Israel, some of whom have become personal friends over the past several years, I found my prayers and my answers in Proverbs 8 and 9

We don’t know how to pray for Israel apart from God’s wisdom. The only thing we know is that the tiny nation that has been central to global politics from the beginning is making decisions that can alter our world. Their decisions can alter the character of our world as well. The one thing I know to pray for them, in addition to peace and divine protection, is that those who lead that nation need to seek and act with the wisdom only God can provide. 

I often say our greatest need is to live a life God is able to bless. God’s blessings are available to those who will walk in his ways. I’m praying that Israel will seek God’s face and God’s righteousness as their first and greatest need. 

Proverbs 8 

If you have time, read both Proverbs 8 and 9 in their entirety. These proverbs are about the blessings of living with God’s wisdom. These proverbs personify wisdom and explain that wisdom is gained from knowing and walking with God. 

My heart was drawn to Proverbs 8:12–21 as a prayer for those who are leading Israel right now. Wisdom causes us to think and feel about things like God would. If we can share the heart of God, we can pray with the thoughts of God. 

This is the wisdom I am praying for those in the nation of Israel, from Proverbs 8:12–21.

1. Pray that those who lead Israel will dwell with God’s wisdom and discretion.

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
    and I find knowledge and discretion.” (v. 12)

2. Pray that God will produce their emotions, their character, and their example to the world.

“The fear of the Lᴏʀᴅ is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
    and perverted speech I hate.” (v. 13)

3. Pray that Israel will recognize that their most important counsel and strategies will come from God. God’s justice is pure, and their leaders need to act in accordance with his direction.

“I have counsel and sound wisdom;
    I have insight; I have strength.
By me kings reign,
    and rulers decree what is just;
by me princes rule,
    and nobles, all who govern justly.” (vv. 14–16)

4. Pray that Israel will understand that their greatest need and their greatest witness is to love God and seek his wisdom and will.

“I love those who love me,
    and those who seek me diligently find me.
Riches and honor are with me,
    enduring wealth and righteousness.” (vv. 17–18)

5. Pray that they will seek the Lord’s victories and justice ahead of their own.

“My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
    and my yield than choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness,
    in the paths of justice,
granting an inheritance to those who love me,
    and filling their treasuries.” (vv. 19–21)

Proverbs 9

Proverbs 9 includes a sobering statement about what happens if we ignore the wisdom of God. God has provided his word and called his people to know it, respect it, and act upon it. There is no other road to success in this life apart from his wisdom. 

Proverbs 9:10–12 makes clear, “The fear of the Lᴏʀᴅ is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.” 

Israel’s search for wisdom should be our own as well 

It seems as if the world is losing its soul. God’s people need to be praying, speaking, and acting with hearts aligned with the truth of God’s word. We shouldn’t be surprised at a world that is in decline spiritually. Jesus, Paul, and others warned us in Scripture that the decline would occur. 

The world has seen evil before and evil will be part of this world until the end of time. Revelation 11 is the word from the seventh and final trumpet. Revelation 11:18 says, “The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” 

God’s servants will be rewarded and evil will be judged. Until that day, we are to fear God’s name, which means our job is to live submitted to his character and voice within us. The Holy Spirit needs to guide our thoughts, our words, and our actions. We can’t pray or speak correctly apart from the Spirit’s guidance. 

Will you pray for the wisdom of God to guide the leaders and people of Israel? 

Will you pray the same for your own life? 

Wisdom is knowing God and walking in his ways rather than our own. Pray for wisdom to bring the blessing of peace. Pray for the Spirit of Jesus to once again walk among them on that land and offer his truth. Israel needs Jesus.  

In his holy name, we pray for our friends and this chosen land . . . Amen.

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For more on the war in Israel, please visit this collection of resources from Denison Ministries.