Praying for peace

As the complexity of the Israel-Hamas war continues to develop, it is more crucial than ever for Christians to pray for those affected. Josh Rutledge, Liberty University’s vice president of spiritual development, spoke about biblical ways to pray for the situation.

“As a believer, the principle is, God doesn’t ask us to have the full awareness of everything that’s going on in a situation, which is why our prayer — our fundamental prayer — can and should be that God would intervene, that God would make himself known, that God’s justice would be done in the situation,” Rutledge said.

He pointed students to Psalm 10, a prayer in which the psalmist appeals to God to break the arm of the wicked and evil man and call him to account for his wickedness. Christians are meant to pray for God to intervene with his justice and wisdom, and Rutledge cautions against praying according to one’s own agenda or beliefs.

“A lot of times we want God to act, but we also want to tell him how he should act. But the fundamental prayer of a Christian should be from the posture of our confidence that God knows more than us; ‘God, act the way that you deem best because you see it better than I do,’ and that is probably the easiest way to avoid getting caught up into trying to tell God how he should be acting in a situation,” Rutledge said. 

Jarnigan is the asst. news editor for the Liberty Champion