For months I have been reading these posts about the South African farm murders, and like you, I find the injustice more than disturbing, but sickening, and yet there is something else that’s almost equally as grievous.
I watch friends who bare the badge of Abel, waste their energy and words on criticising the government responsible, rather than making public their charged petitions and crafting cries up towards the only One who can help these poor souls govern justly. They believe that ridiculing individuals is a show of concern and a demonstration of social justice, but not realising they are themselves becoming like the ones they scorn, haters and slanderers. This is grieving.
Why not also post petitioning prayers? Not only in anguish but praise that God is just, willing and able to deliver, and how much we desire His justice and His love. Your courage to do so, will give the rest of us the courage to move alongside, and align our hearts with yours in spreading hope.
I watch friends, who would rather wear the mark of Cain, still put their faith in the next government in the hope that things will get better, a type of roulette that one of these political utopian experiments are destined to succeed, that one of these scientific myths might manifest, when at best it may provide us a small castle with a drawbridge, in the brief anxious moment before our death.
Why not also post petitioning prayers? Not only praise but in anguish remind Him that His plans for us are not to harm us (Jeremiah 29:11), that He did not appoint us to suffer wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9), and that He promised us a Kingdom of peace (Isaiah 11). Could it be we do not have because we do not ask? (James 4:2)
If we, as heralds to this world, only bring the bad news, then it depresses people and we have a hand to play in their oppression. If we bring only good news then we, knowing what occurs in the wider world, become unrelatable and expose the precarious trusses behind our cheerful facades, which is why we need both – bad news and good news – at the same time. When bad news meets good news, we have what is known as the ‘Gospel’, which is the most robust and indestructible narrative that exists in the world, one of hope and salvation. Our words and actions remain out of touch, and empty without it.
Why does the Lord delay His justice?
There is no mystery here. The Lord’s justice depends on one thing, and one thing alone; that the Gospel is preached in every corner of the world (Matthew 24:14). If we – and I say we to include my flawed and guilty self – if we really cared about the injustices in the world, we would focus our efforts on people who have never heard the name Jesus.
Lord chancellor Francis Bacon once said that ‘true humility is accepting how God is actually working in the world.’ It’s a good definition, because most do not consider how God is working in the world.
So let’s do this, and let’s do this right.
Are you ready prayer one?
Our Father in Heaven…
We come before you as a community. The fact that we are a group of believers and unbelievers we put aside for the moment, to bring before You the desperation of our times, where we need Your justice to prevail in many parts of Your planet, if not it’s entirety, but in this moment, please turn Your ear towards South Africa. It’s a supernatural justice we are after Lord, and so we bend our knee, so we can make Your desires our desires, seeking Your omniscient knowledge and counsel during this crisis.
We ask You Lord to draw near, and speak to the leadership of South Africa, from which the whole Nation take their cue (1 Timothy 2:1-3). We acknowledge that you are Kingmaker, and we are appalled and embarrassed that You often give us leaders as mirrors (Daniel 4:17), to reveal our own corrupt hearts, and for this we are deeply sorry and plead with You to forgive us, and change us.
Please equip the leaders of South Africa and work to strengthen them, to make them bold but not harsh, tender but not weak, humble but not uncertain, let them demonstrate unbending convictions but with complete approachability, an insistence on truth but always bathed in love, let them show integrity without rigidity, passion without prejudice and power without insensitivity, so that the land and all its people will heal.
We ask you Lord that you would similarly convict the hearts of those who occupy any middle positions of power, whether in government or in business, that you would provide them wise counsellors and God-fearing mentors, who will guide them in selfless, sacrificial ways, not because they ‘ought’ – for ‘ought’ has proved itself in lacking persistence – but because they are a people filled with a love to please You. Please place the seeds in them to know that all their hopes and dreams and life lie nowhere else, but in You. We implore you Holy Spirit to raise a revival and drench South Africa with this supernatural love and concern.
We ask you Lord, that you would give this Nation a teachable heart, a humble heart, a surrendering and a kind heart towards You, and one another, and to seal that heart through a deep understanding, an intimate appreciation, and a personal and tearful resonance of what occurred at the cross on Calvary, where your Son was butchered instead of them.
We ask you Lord, to be the Protector and Comforter to the families of the murdered farming communities, that you would keep bitterness, malice and retribution away from their hearts, and we thank you for the life beyond this one, where the murdered faithful now stand beside You underneath the altar, where You hear their continual entreats, day and night (Revelation 6:9-11).
Lord be kind to the people of South Africa. Do not give up on them, do not leave them to the vultures and the wolves, and show Your compassion for the sake of Your persecuted elect (Hebrews 13:5). Convict those who have any kind of wealth, so they may lower their draw-bridges and fearlessly share their excess, in these days of slaughter (James 5:5).
Father, we deserve our communal lament to be heard, and for You to act, not because of anything we’ve done, but because there are many made righteous and still being made righteous among us, who have been changed, because of the sacrifice of Your Son.
You told us that; “the prayers of the righteous avails much” (James 5:16) – now show us that this is true. You told us to; “make intercession for one another” – which we are doing right here (1 Timothy 2:1). You said; “ask to be delivered from evil” – which we are doing right now (Matthew 6:13). Now show Yourself Lord, and do something truly amazing. If you do not do this God, if You do not rise up against wickedness, (Psalm 94:16) then You not only nullify Your own words, but also your Son Jesus Christ would have died for nothing, most especially for these people South of Capricorn. Honour Your sacrifice Lord, just as we honour Your sacrifice.
We may not always understand what You’re doing, but we trust You. We may not be able to see as far into the future as You can, but we have Your Son’s, our King’s footprints we daily step into. We may have lost our dreams, but we have pilgrimage. We may have lost our loved ones, and indeed ourselves, but we have You. We may beg You to let this cup pass (Matthew 26:39), but Your wisdom and Your plans are always better, for You always give us what we would have asked for, if we knew everything You did, and yet Jesus said we could ask You anything and You would do it, (John 14:14), which is why we ask boldly in His mighty and beautiful name, to come and save us Lord.
Please come and save us.
In Jesus name…
Amen.
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