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Further Call to Prayer and Kingdom Priority
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Recently we called the Free Methodist Church of North America to join us in seeking God’s mighty intervention in places of terror or deadly conflict where the carnage of war has now become the norm.
We renew our call as pastoral overseers of the Free Methodist Church. We urge you to pray not only for our leaders and those aligned with them but also for the leaders of other nations and groups who have declared themselves enemies of the West. We urge prayer not only for the beloved daughters and sons of our nation in harm’s way, but also for the beloved children of the people who live in the threatening shadows of death. Indeed, we urge fervent prayer for the vulnerable and weak wherever they may live and whatever loyalties may claim their allegiance. And, finally we urge prayer for our many brothers and sisters in Christ who feel caught between local terrors and the global political, cultural, economic and religious dynamics that fuel them. The Scriptures remind us to “do good to all, and especially the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). Surely the good we must do includes fervent prayer.
We write now to expand our call to prayer. We commend prayer not because it is the only thing we can do, or because nothing else has worked, or because as spiritual leaders it is expected. Rather, our call to prayer rises out of a deep and compelling commitment to be a people whose lives reflect Christ’s kingdom of love and peace..
The Apostle Paul insisted that “our citizenship is in heaven …” (Phil. 3:20). Similarly, the Apostle Peter asserts that born again people are resident aliens and visiting strangers with a mission in the world (I Peter 1:1-2, 17; 2:11-12). And Jesus claims us as a people in but not of this world (see John 17:14-16). Moreover, we remind you that God’s kingdom often clashes with the other kingdoms of this world. Yet, the weapons of our warfare are not of this world (2 Cor. 10:4)
Therefore, supplementing our call to prayer, we offer the following reflections on strategic kingdom responses to the 21 st century realities of our world.
What or whom do we most deeply trust ? The kingdoms of this world are no more sure than this world, which is passing away. Even what is most certain and secure is shaky and vulnerable. We find no ultimate help in mere human wisdom and power, or from this world’s economic, social, and political structures. Our help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. So, we do not live for this world. We’ve often said such things, but do we mean them and live them?
Where is God and how does God work in our world ? God is above it all, but also within, through and underneath it all. God has been present with those who have lost their lives, and is present with those who work for rescue, recovery, and renewal. God’s way is in and through the pain, not around it. God’s way is incarnational presence and redemption. God’s way is to take terror and turn it to triumph, somehow and some way. Thus our trust in God must come to terms with the God who reveals himself as he reveals himself, above all in the person of Jesus.
What ought we do ? Let us anchor our lives firmly in the unshakable kingdom of God. To do so we must express kingdom values as we respond to our world and its terrors. In particular:
- We value human beings, made in God’s image, no matter how different from us and no matter where they may live.
- We identify especially with the weak, defenseless, and powerless—the lost, least, last, because that is what God does.
- We become like little children in our humility and trust because that is the way of the kingdom.
- We seek grace to treasure not only our loves ones (which comes natural to us), but all for whom Christ died (which comes only “supernaturally”).
- We seek to overcome evil with good, resisting temptations to vengeance that only deepen cycles of violence.
- We ennoble, honor, and join with all that protect the innocent, relieve the suffering, care for the traumatized, repair what has been destroyed, and seek the right (i.e., as God defines right) measures to protect against future assault.
- We accept our King’s assignments for these days, confident they will serve the interests of his kingdom but also, in the end, the interests of all. Let us do what God has gifted and called us to do, knowing that our obedience will count, in ways that a purely worldly perspective can hardly perceive.
- We do not need to fear. We have hope for this world but also beyond this world that makes us strong and helpful for this world.
- We therefore prepare to give a reason for the hope that we have.
In the Grace and Peace of Jesus,
The Board of Bishops
Click Here to read the initial call to prayer from the Board of Bishops and to find out how to publicly commit to enlisting in the prayer response.
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