One of my favourite books of the bible is Nehemiah, and some of the powerful and memorable parts of the book is the account of Jerusalem’s residents gathering to listen to the prophet Ezra read the books of the Law, which in turn led to all of the people confessing their sins as a nation.
The account reminds us to not make faith a small thing.
All the Israelites who returned from exile gathered, remembered, and returned to the Lord. Our context is in fact very different. Yet perhaps many within the UK church today have lost the sense that we can also gather, remember, and return as a people not only as individuals; as a Church, not only a group of churches.
Together, on a national stage, we can provide thanks for a way as a nation and Church we have now been blessed in so some ways. But we can even gather to hope for a breakthrough, for provision, protection, and an actual sense of hope across the land. Indeed, gathering, remembering, and returning to the Lord is probably what He longs for us to do on this season.
And we’re entering a recent season – a season in desperate need of intercession and divine intervention.
October sees Parliament getting back from political conference season. We have a recent Government, and a House of Commons where most MPs are brand recent. Every one in all our elected politicians, national and native, experienced or recent of their role, need our prayers for the season ahead.
The problems we have now before us seem enormous. From riots to financial blackholes, from struggling public services to humanitarian crises arising from armed conflict, there seems a never-ending list of insurmountable problems.
And the temptation is that we either ignore the brokenness or grasp false hope; to trust only in ourselves, our idols, and our tribe or to hunt distractions and hope the issues go away – or that another person takes care of it.
But now is just not the time to show away from the brokenness. Simply denying or condemning evil is just not the Jesus way. When faced with insurmountable odds I’m not paralysed – I pray. It is prayer that keeps me within the space where I’m aware of how and why some many things are broken but have hope that things can and can change.
Therefore I’m convinced that prayer, alongside gracious love in motion, is what we’d like without delay.
Charles Spurgeon once wrote that “prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence”. We and our prayers are indeed slender nerves, and these are nervous times, when we’d like to cry out to the omnipotent muscle.
Individual prayer is a privilege, and praying with friends in twos, threes, as small groups or churches is a superb encouragement and will be immensely powerful. But imagine what a nation at prayer could achieve. It could change that nation. Not just encourage the answer to political, economic or social challenges, but heal divisions, change hearts in addition to minds, and be the catalyst for real sustained change.
It is the shared belief in the necessity for us to cry out to the Lord in prayer and the idea that the omnipotent muscle can achieve immeasurably greater than we will ever imagine that has inspired many national ministries and leaders to return together and call for a national week of prayer from the 12-20 October.
I feel that the National Week of Prayer is a movement brought together by the Holy Spirit, united by the vision that God may do remarkable things if we come to him humble, repentant, and praying for lives to be transformed by Jesus.
Information concerning the National Week of Prayer will be found on a dedicated website (www.nationalweekofprayer.org) where there’s information on how you’ll be able to get entangled, sign-up to events, and other resources to enable you to be a part of something that may very well be truly remarkable and special.
As Chief Executive of CARE I’m proud that we’re fully behind the week, offering resources for individuals who wish to pray for the nation’s leaders and supporting the opposite events that shall be going down throughout the week. And I even have been humbled by how so many have come together so quickly with a way of the necessity and hope of what God might do through this moment. Join us in taking a step of religion to vary a nation.
Ross Hendry has working in and around politics for the last thirty years, and is currently CEO of CARE (www.care.org.uk) who’re supporting the National Week of Prayer from 12-20 October. Ross Hendry is a planning committee member for the National Week of Prayer.
