Friday, February 25, 2022

Praying for Ukraine

In my Bible reading this morning, I came upon this verse from Acts 12:

But earnest prayer was going up to God from the church for his safety all the time he was in prison (Acts 12:5). 

What was written about Peter is also true about our sisters and brothers in Ukraine. I have so many precious memories of my three trips to that nation. Here's a picture of me teaching in Mykolaiv in December of 2012. 

Its airport came under missile fire yesterday. 

My heart has been heavy around the farm here as I've thought about my friends in Ukraine. What a reminder that things can turn on a dime. Suffering in this world is unavoidable. We rally around those who are suffering and they do the same for us when we cannot get up. 

Our main business as Christians is to glorify God. Sometimes God has strange ways of bringing glory to himself. Lazarus' sickness was for God's glory (John 11:4). Peter was told by what death he would glorify God (John 21:19). Sometimes we glorify God more in our sickness than in our health, more by death than by life, more on those days when nothing seems to be going right than on those days of thrilling events. We Christians are sorely mistaken when we think that following Christ will put us at the top of the ladder. It may drop us to the bottom rung. 

Today I am praying for the peace of Ukraine. It is a brave and proud nation. May they, and we, remember what we are here for. In body and in spirit, by life or by death, in sickness or in health, whether we eat or drink, our business is to glorify God, who will be with us "all the days" unto the consummation of the age. Prayer and faith and godly living can show up even in the face of great suffering with a beauty that no invasion can thwart.