A Time to Pray

We read these words in the Old Testament wisdom literature. 

For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.

-      Ecclesiastes 3:1

If this were read in church, the reader would conclude by saying, “The word of God for the People of God,” and the congregation would respond, “Amen.”

Here are the next seven verses.

² A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

With the word of God teaching us there different times and seasons, in what season do we currently find ourselves – we people of the world – we the human race?  Is this the “time to hate?”  Or, “the time to kill,” as in kill the evildoers?  But who are the evildoers?  Who among us are qualified to determine who the evildoers are?  What if the killer of the evildoers is evil too?

What is the time?  What is this time for?

Houston.  Harvey.

Florida.  Irma.

Puerto Rico.  Maria.

Las Vegas. 

North Korea. 

Travel Ban.  “The tougher the better” – POTUS.

Syria.  ISIS – still.

The list goes on.  And on.  What is “the time?”  For followers of Jesus, this is “a time to pray.”  Aren’t all times “a time to pray?”  Of course.  This season, this Monday after the shooting near the Mandalay Bay casino is a time for specific prayer.  Weeping prayer.  Knees-rubbed-raw prayer.  Keep-me-awake-at-night prayer.

It’s the prayer of Jesus when he says,

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”   - Matthew 23

It’s the passion and compassion Jesus shows as his crucifixion looms.

⁴¹ And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side ⁴⁴ and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

How do we pray in days like these?  Note how deeply Jesus loved a people who were so lost in sin.  Pray in love.  Love Syrians and Koreans and refugees and immigrants.  And Vegas concert goers.  And Puerto Ricans putting their lives back together.  And presidents. 

This kind of love isn’t easy, no, not at all.  This kind of love is spiritual work.  It is response to the grace God has given in the cross and in forgiveness, but it is also acknowledgement of what grace means. God has to give us grace because of the state of the world and the state of our own hearts.  This love that fills our prayers and drives our prayer comes from knowing that God has welcomed us when we were at our worst.  Oh God, help me love those I don’t want to love.  Maybe that’s where prayer starts.

Pray stories.  Zero in on specific people affected by hurricanes or travel bans or mass-shootings.  Pick one small story out of the big story and pray into that small story in earnest, in sweat and tears.  Pray into the story until you feel the story. 

Obviously Christ-followers can give money to hurricane relief efforts and we must.  We can advocate for equal rights, oppose bigotry, support refugees, and volunteer in our communities.  We do these things.  The time is right to do these things. 

It is also a time to pray.