A CALL TO PRAY AND THEN ACT

Regarding the 2016 Presidential Election . . .
( I know we are not alone.)

The feelings of shock, sadness, anger, disbelief, and determination keep competing with one another and with feelings of horror and disappointment. Beyond feelings, though, with the Lord's help, I keep choosing to seek God's face, His peace in Jesus Christ, His protection for each person existing in fear. I pray for those who mourn and for each one at risk.

Even amongst people whom I love very much and whom I have known all my life, there are those who in no one certain terms have pulled out all the stops and are supporting people and activities that I believe to be insupportable.

It's too sad.

I still love them all, but I know that our conversations and interactions are going to continue to be affected by the polarization we are experiencing.

It's a sickening feeling.

The only thing to do is to continue to find hope. And with that hope, there must be love and action.

Jesus was able to do the miraculous things that He did because He spent time first alone with the Lord, praying and being filled with God's power through the Holy Spirit.

We also, if we are believers, must begin with prayer.

Probably the most important prayers will be to pray for those who persecute and spitefully use people.

Only God can change their hearts.

If we are to continue to become more Christlike, we will have to seek the Holy Spirit. With His help through scripture, we will find the guidance, support, and encouragement that we need as we pray.
The Lord keeps bringing to mind a lot of Bible stories where God has required fewer and fewer people to fight the battle so that those who are fighting and those who will be defeated know that the Lord alone is the champion and victor.

Think of Gideon in the seventh chapter of the book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible.

In our age God is still coming through for His people:
http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/…/top-17-miraculous-isra…/

Remember that God is always on the side of the short statistic if what happens has to do with deliverance and victory.

And remember that the Lord is always on the side of the least, the last, the lost, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the destitute, and anyone suffering from violence.

God loves each and everyone of us, but He has never loved the activities that cause anyone pain and suffering. The Lord weeps for the perpetrators of evil just as much as he weeps for their victims.

The Lord never has turned His back on anyone, but those who have turned their back on His love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, kindness and understanding have turned their back on the Light and Life.

They are moving into deep darkness.

We have a responsibility to warn them.

Our witness is the love we have them.

As Baby Boomers, we know this well. We saw in person or in pictures or on films the flowers being pushed into the mouth of guns on tanks. 

We saw marchers of all ages courageously stand up in nonviolent protest, or sit down bravely in places where they would be verbally vilified as well as physically assaulted.

We wept when we heard that four beautiful little girls violently perished in their church. And we mourned when others perished in sacred places, and in a myriad of other locations that should only have been associated with peace and security.

Even the Lord must be more than weary to see rising again what so much that the Greatest Generation--and those of many other generations--fought for and died for . . . and suffered for to the world's everlasting grief.

By some estimates, the wars of the mid 20th century, along with indigenous political mass murders took the lives of over thirty-two million people.

THIRTY-TWO MILLION PEOPLE

And that wasn't enough to work harder so that the people of the world can live in peace?

Enough is way beyond enough, and we have to break out of our numbness and shock.

Our work is cut out for us, and we indeed have been born for such a time as this.

Whoever you are, Beloved, and whatever you believe, my prayer is that you will open your heart to the Fullness of Love and let that Love wash over you and fill you so that there is nothing but love, joy, mercy, peace, righteousness and the complete knowledge of how loved you are in your body, mind, soul and spirit. That will make a start.
In Jesus' Holy and precious Name I pray. 

Alleluia! Amen and amen.