Praying in Wartime
It’s now almost a year since this original post. As the war in Gaza passes 365 days, with grievous suffering; and as the war escalates throughout the region, I return again to the question of how do we pray in times like this?
I sense we have heavy hearts. I do. It’s in the air. There seems to be war all around us—in our bodies’ illnesses and addictions, the estrangement in our homes, the culture wars fracturing societies, and horrific violence between neighborhoods and nations. We name these heartaches and horrors every Sunday in our corporate prayers.
We try praying polite prayers for world peace, end of conflict, protection, healing. These are good but they feel at times emotionless, not matching the horror of the moment.
We may pray partisan prayers for vengeance and victory. These, like the imprecatory psalms,[i] express our honest emotions and rage. But when we step back, we are troubled by how mean they sound.
Sometimes we may feel like the persistent widow, constantly asking God for healing and help, for intervention and peace, yet violence continues, bombs keep dropping, illness prevails, relationships shatter. We tire of asking the same things over and over. We even tire of words.
This can open us up to another dimension of prayer in wartime. We find it in Romans 8.26-27 “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. God who searches the heart, knows what the Spirit is saying because the Spirit intercedes according to the will of God.” The Message translates it, “If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves…and keeps us present before God.”
To read about three dimensions of prayer in wartime, please download the attached reflection. Feel free to share it with others.
[i] Psalms 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69 79, 83, 109 and 137
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