We planted a sign in the church lawn, urging prayer for Ukraine.
We gathered live on Facebook, lifting prayer for Ukraine.
We wore blue and gold ribbons, created by women in the church family, urging prayer for Ukraine.
We stood in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings as Pastor Hannah lifted prayer for Ukraine.
“Lord, we ask for your mighty works to be done in Ukraine,” Hannah requested through our corporate prayer. “We will come to you again, we will return week after week, asking for your miracles to show up, Lord, for you to turn those hearts of stone and set them with compassion.”
We filled March with prayer for Ukraine and all of those in Europe and around the world impacted by Russia’s aggression. We prayed for those living with the realities of war; death and injury and destruction and fear and hunger and separation.
We step into April lifting and urging and persisting in prayer for Ukraine.
We persist in prayer, perhaps, because of Easter. We persist because Jesus, on the eve of his crucifixion, knelt and prayed in the garden, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.”
Do you remember the next line in Chapter 22 of Luke’s Gospel? I didn’t, until I began writing this prayer prompt. The sequence is extraordinary.
“An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.”
God was listening. He responded immediately. He doesn’t appear to take the cup, but it was clear that God was engaged, He was aware and alive and moving, fortifying the suffering. He sent an angel to gift Jesus with new strength.
How did Jesus use this new strength? Did he rise to meet the conflict? Did he stride confidently toward confrontation?
No. The renewed Jesus persisted in prayer. He continued the conversation. He patiently extended his exploration of God’s will.
Luke writes, “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
Wouldn’t we love to know something about the prayers that followed the angel’s visit? I feel like he probably continued the conversation with much thanksgiving and praise and trust.
The content of the prayer is lost, but the model Jesus set in persisting in prayer remains with us, always. Pray, and then pray again. The world changed for all of us in the hours and days that followed the extended prayer of Jesus.
Let’s persist in prayer for the conflict in Ukraine and all who are shaken by it. Let’s continue the conversation. Let’s extend in faith and trust and thanksgiving.
On April 3, as the sun sets around 7:47 pm, from wherever you are, with whomever will join you, let’s pray again for peace in Ukraine, peace in Russia, peace in Europe, peace in the refugee settlements… we don’t have to be limited. Let’s pray into famine and war in East Africa, to conflict, oppression and fear in places such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, Central America, and Myanmar. Let’s pray into racism and exclusion, violence and oppression, hunger and addiction.
Your prayer doesn’t have to be at sunset. Persist at any hour and know that God is listening. He is aware and alive and moving in a world that persists in prayer, who have faith in His will.
“We want to affirm again that you are good, that you are holy, and that you are alive and at work,” Hannah said in a Sunday morning prayer. “And that we may not always see how, or feel it, or know it, we believe it. We will continue to profess that faith, even when it his hard, even when we are tired, even when it sometimes feels so out of control. And we also claim that we are never without hope.”
In our prayer, we can repeat the words of Jesus. “…not my will but yours be done.”
Photo by Daniel Arrhakis