Pray and seek for Jerusalem’s peace, for all who love her will prosper!
O Jerusalem, may there be peace for those who dwell inside your walls and prosperity in your every palace.
I intercede for the sake of my family and friends who dwell there, that they may all live in peace.
For the sake of your house, Yahweh our God, I will seek the welfare and prosperity of Jerusalem.
(Psalm 122:6-9 TPT)
Often an anniversary comes with it fond and sweet memories. For instance, wedding anniversary is a time for a couple remember the vows taken and the life-journey began. Other anniversaries like a first meeting, a first date, a new job, and a new house can also be celebrated years later. But some anniversaries aren’t full of good memories.
A year ago men and women, boys and girls in Israel were attacked by terrorists from Gaza.
A year later, the war between Israel and their various enemies continues to develop and unfold. The world looks on warily, wondering if this – along with Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan, and other hot spots – will be the beginning of a new world war.
A year later families grieve loved ones lost on that last October 7. One victim’s mom said this, “The emotions come in waves. “It’s a hole in the heart. It’s anger. It’s trauma, because, you know, having a child murdered, [while] you’re on the phone [with them] … it’s something you don’t come back from.”**
A year later families seek information and the return of those who were kidnapped by terrorists. “For [this] family, like so many of Israel’s hostage families, it’s been a year of intolerable, engulfing fear, loathing and anxiety. It’s been a year of not knowing whether Agam Berger, 20, is alive or dead, or how she’s being treated by her captors.“***
A year later….through the trials and the grief, the violence, and the upheaval, we can still call out to God. Jesus used Isaiah’s words to give us hope that the brokenhearted would be put back together, the captives freed, the grieving comforted, and the despairing given spiritual garments of praise. May God’s Shalom be in Israel, all of the Middle East, and to the ends of the earth.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor. (Isaiah 61:1-3 NIV)
Jehovah Shalom,
When I first heard that Hamas had attacked Israel I knew the situation was not good – thousands killed, hundreds kidnapped to be used as hostages, including children and elderly, infrastructure destroyed, rape, abuse, trauma, and death and more death in this war. Your heart of love must be breaking for all the sorrow in this area of the world. God, I know that the hostilities in that region have roots going back to Abraham’s sons, but I pray in the name of Jesus that somehow you would stop this war. I realize that there is a time for peace and a time for war, and that there are times in which you allow war and violence for your own just purposes. I do not have your perspective, so I do not claim to understand all that is happening there, but I know that nations, communities, and families are being ripped apart. That can not be your good plans and purposes for that region.
And I know that this localized war has the potential of pulling many other nations into it. The more I study our past, the more I realize we are doomed to repeat it if we do not know our history, and recognize you as sovereign in our world. God, protect our nation from being sucked into another world war; we are already too divided to be able to effectively protect ourselves. Pour out your Spirit and wisdom on all the policy makers in each nation. Thwart any “leader” who wants to escalate the brutality or bring nuclear weapons into this war. Eliminate the funding and resources that terrorists use to steal, kill, and destroy. Scramble their communication. Destroy their propaganda. Stop them from recruiting new terrorists. Send your war angels to stop evil in its tracks. Thwart the plans of the enemy and break the power of the wicked, we pray in Jesus’s name.
Give information, wisdom, discernment, resources, and strategy to those who seek to rescue hostages and to end this violence. Protect those who are hostages from more trauma, fear, or violence. Meet them in their places of captivity with your sweet Spirit of Peace. Protect families from further destruction, and strengthen those who are awaiting news of loved ones. Grant grace, mercy, and resolve to those who are working to bring home their loved ones. Rescue those who are missing, heal those who are injured, comfort those whose loved ones were killed. Pour out your peace in this area, we ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
“No one should think that we have lost even a bit of hope. Israel is a nation born of hope in the face of disaster, a people of hope despite endless catastrophes; it embodies a spirit of hope that can’t be extinguished—although many have tried. We’ve sung this verse for generations, with hope, and we’re singing it now in Jerusalem, Sderot, Tel Aviv, and even among those imprisoned in Gaza: ‘Am Yisrael Chai—the nation of Israel lives!'” *
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9 ESV)
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10 ESV)
“The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.” (Proverbs 10:3 ESV)
“Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;
for the power of the wicked will be broken,
but the Lord upholds the righteous.” (Psalm 37:16-17 NIV)
“There is…a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3:8 NIV)
“Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire 2 and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. 3 And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. 5 David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God….And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. 18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought back all. 20 David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove the livestock before him, and said, “This is David’s spoil.” (1 Samuel 30: 1-6, 16-20 ESV)
*https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/from-dancing-with-the-torah-to-war-in-an-hour-5506101