Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself heavy-hearted. We’ve seen three headlines that have been hard to take in. A school shooting in Minneapolis resulted in 2 students dying and dozens more injured, to a young woman named Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death on a train in North Carolina, and the news yesterday of the assassination of Charlie Kirk at a campus in Utah.
When you read stories like these, you can’t help but feel the weight. There’s anger, grief, confusion, and pain. And in moments like this, we need to be reminded of something that I spoke about in church just a couple weeks ago: God is not the author of chaos. He is not the author of pain. He is not the author of sin or grief. That’s the work of the enemy.
Jesus Himself told us in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” The devil is real, and he is at work. But at the same time—we need to cling to this—God is sovereign. God is still in control. Evil may roar, but it does not reign.
So where does that leave us? We pray. We don’t shrink back. We lift up the name of Jesus. We call on Him for healing, for protection, for revival.
As a pastor, I want to encourage our congregation to be in prayer for the following things—and I encourage other pastors to lead their congregations to do the same:
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Our Church – Pray for your pastor to lead with boldness, grace, and truth. Pray for spiritual growth in the congregation, that we would truly be the hands and feet of Jesus in our community.
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Our Children & Students – Pray for their safety, for their teachers, and for God to stir revival in the next generation.
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Our Local Communities – Pray for peace, for protection over first responders, and for wisdom for local leaders.
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Our National Leaders – Pray that God would protect them, guide them, and give them discernment. Pray that policies would protect families, preserve freedom, and bring peace.
Friends, we don’t always understand the pain we see in the world, but we can trust that our God is above it all. And when His people pray, He moves. Let’s be faithful to lift our voices together.
