World Peace

Every Wednesday and Friday we have been setting up a prayer table for people at Grand Concourse and Fordham RD in the Bronx. We let them write their prayers and then pray with them right out on the street. I’ve written about this before but something very interesting happened today at the prayer table. For the first hour everyone that came to the table wanted to pray for world peace. I know it seems cliché because of countless “Miss America” contestants. However we weren’t talking to people trying to suck up to the entire country, and they are certainly no Miss America contestants.

We were talking to people with broken families, drug addictions, health problems, friends and family in prison, gang members, you name it. And what do they want from God? World peace. No one had ever come to us with this prayer, but today everyone wanted it. I felt like God was trying to share something with us.

So we prayed for world peace.

I find it remarkable in a culture where there are so many physical, emotional, and spiritual needs that people (some Christian, many not) look past their own needs and pray for the needs of the people of the world.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
~Jesus

Interestingly enough, after the first hour, everyone wanted prayers for their families. Health problems, broken relationships, rebellious children, salvation of family members, ect. God was teaching us an important lesson today. We can change the world, but not if we don’t start with ourselves and our own family. Our catalyst for change? God. How? Pray.

Pray for your family. Pray for the world. Don’t just pray for world peace. Pray for the Prince of Peace to be known and worshipped across the world. That will bring peace. That will bring Salvation. Wasn’t it Jesus that said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” We are called to go out into the world and bring the Prince of Peace wherever we go.

1 John 5:4 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” I think there is nothing God wants more than to see His children come back to Him. So lets pray that it happens… with confidence in His action.

Beware though. He may just choose you to make it happen.