Silas
Beloved Servant
Your prayer carries the weight of Scripture and the heart of a watchman on the walls. You are asking God to do what He alone can do: restrain the raging of nations, overrule the schemes of the evil one, and guide rulers toward His purposes. That is no small burden, but it is a right one, for we are commanded to pray for all in authority so that the gospel may spread in peace and that we might live quiet and godly lives. You are doing exactly that, and you are doing it with an eye to the global stage, where proud rulers still imagine they bend history to their own will.
What stands out in your request is the clear hatred of evil. That alone marks a mind shaped by the fear of the Lord. The beginning of wisdom is not to make truces with darkness or to call evil good when the law of the land recasts it. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. When a society reaches the point where its leaders love evil and despise the good, when they make laws that punish righteousness and protect perversion, then that nation is already staggering toward ruin. You are right to pray that God would intercept the plots conceived in the hearts of strategists and restrain the spirit of retaliation and aggression. The God who revealed the secret plans of Syria to Elisha still sees the war rooms and the closed doors. He knows every word before it is on the tongue.
Yet as you pray against the wickedness of other nations, remember that the same God calls His people in every land to humble themselves. The prophet Daniel did not stand aloof from the sins of his people; he confessed them as his own. Your prayer does well to include confession of sin, for a nation that flirts with evil invites the very judgments it asks God to hold back. God is not mocked. When a people boast of their rebellion and parade their sin, they are daring the patience of Heaven. And yet, if they will turn, if they will hearken, then God may relent from the calamity He has purposed. That is the hope we cling to when we intercede.
Do not let the apparent rise of evil empires shake you. Every Nebuchadnezzar eventually learns that the Most High rules the kingdoms of men and gives them to whomever He will. The scepter of the wicked will be broken. The day is coming when the whole earth will be at rest and break forth into singing, but until then, the Lord uses the prayers of His people as part of His restraining work. You are not ignorant of the devil’s schemes, and you are not powerless. Jesus has given authority, yet He also reminds us to rejoice most that our names are written in heaven.
So remain simple concerning evil. Do not let your mind dwell on the darkness to the point of fear or fascination. Instead, love the good, establish justice in your own gates, and commit the unseen battles to God. He will repay; vengeance belongs to Him. The Church’s role is to be a helpmeet to Christ in intercession, standing in the gap and refusing to give God rest until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Keep lifting that burden. Keep hating the evil. Keep asking the Father to lead all nations not into the temptation of destructive pride, but to deliver them from the evil one. Your labor in prayer is not in vain.
What stands out in your request is the clear hatred of evil. That alone marks a mind shaped by the fear of the Lord. The beginning of wisdom is not to make truces with darkness or to call evil good when the law of the land recasts it. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. When a society reaches the point where its leaders love evil and despise the good, when they make laws that punish righteousness and protect perversion, then that nation is already staggering toward ruin. You are right to pray that God would intercept the plots conceived in the hearts of strategists and restrain the spirit of retaliation and aggression. The God who revealed the secret plans of Syria to Elisha still sees the war rooms and the closed doors. He knows every word before it is on the tongue.
Yet as you pray against the wickedness of other nations, remember that the same God calls His people in every land to humble themselves. The prophet Daniel did not stand aloof from the sins of his people; he confessed them as his own. Your prayer does well to include confession of sin, for a nation that flirts with evil invites the very judgments it asks God to hold back. God is not mocked. When a people boast of their rebellion and parade their sin, they are daring the patience of Heaven. And yet, if they will turn, if they will hearken, then God may relent from the calamity He has purposed. That is the hope we cling to when we intercede.
Do not let the apparent rise of evil empires shake you. Every Nebuchadnezzar eventually learns that the Most High rules the kingdoms of men and gives them to whomever He will. The scepter of the wicked will be broken. The day is coming when the whole earth will be at rest and break forth into singing, but until then, the Lord uses the prayers of His people as part of His restraining work. You are not ignorant of the devil’s schemes, and you are not powerless. Jesus has given authority, yet He also reminds us to rejoice most that our names are written in heaven.
So remain simple concerning evil. Do not let your mind dwell on the darkness to the point of fear or fascination. Instead, love the good, establish justice in your own gates, and commit the unseen battles to God. He will repay; vengeance belongs to Him. The Church’s role is to be a helpmeet to Christ in intercession, standing in the gap and refusing to give God rest until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Keep lifting that burden. Keep hating the evil. Keep asking the Father to lead all nations not into the temptation of destructive pride, but to deliver them from the evil one. Your labor in prayer is not in vain.
