Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!
(See Is. 34:1-2)

O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!
(Jer. 22:29)

Many of you will remember the brilliant World at War series, with Carl Davis’s hauntingly melancholic theme music, Laurence Olivier’s superb narration, and the visions of bombed-out cities and lines of refugees wearily trudging in search of safety. With its unflinching, and often raw testimony from survivors, it was an unsanitised masterpiece of a documentary, showing many scenes that would be regarded as too ‘gritty’ for today’s television audiences.

Sadly, those scenes and those lines of refugees are again the daily reality for many millions of people today, especially in Lebanon, as the Third Gulf War impacts more and more nations.

Before we turn our attention to specific events relating to the present world crisis, (which people will obviously see through different lenses) let’s join in praying for the nations. Here are two tracks as ‘starters for ten’ from Spirit of Prayer:

Prayer for the nations

Although I wrote this piece in the early 2010’s, when the challenge from ISIL was at its height, this prayer for nations remains valid, and captures something of what the Lord Jesus foresaw on His agonising way down the Via Dolorosa toward his crucifixion. The music was written by Linda Louisa Entwistle.

Lord Jesus, the crowd were cheering themselves hoarse as You made Your triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but You were weeping; for You foresaw the ravages and loss of life that would afflict the city because she was about to reject the hour of her visitation. Unaware of how You longed to draw them into the shelter of Your wings, the people quickly turned from ecstatic joy to extreme hostility.

Redemptive One, we cry to you on behalf of lands where tensions and divisions are being whipped into something infinitely combustible as ideologies from hell lure and stoke the call to violence; and the newly established Caliphate aggravates long-standing sores and tensions.

We celebrate Your redemptive power that has achieved so much,
and seek You now for nations in thrall to deceptive calls,
From the Archduke’s assassination,
through countless killing fields and holocausts
to the lethal civil wars that ravage rip and tear so many regions asunder,
we remember how powerfully You worked
to rescue Germany from Nazi tyranny
enabling her to take her place once more among the nations –
and how You empowered South Africa to emerge
beyond the deceptive trap of the racist call.

We give you now these flashpoints around the world,
and cry to You to intervene and defuse,
lest these streams of violence plunge the planet
ever deeper into senseless blood-letting:
thrusting and lunging at all who seek to follow You.

May pariah states and failing nations –
and lands like Kenya Somalia and Mozambique,
here the deadly terrorist agenda is never far away –
find their true peace and purpose not in violence but in You
and so fulfil their God-given call.

Arise and show Your protection and Your power
in practical supplies and spiritual succour:
in Kurdistan and Turkey, and in Italy as they struggle to absorb the sea of refugees.
In Your compassion, lift up the weak and comfort the displaced as only You are able to do.

As we gather round Your throne we cry:
Guide and guard the leaders of all the nations
that are watching on in deep concern;
humble the proud,
save to the uttermost, Lord,
overthrow all that is stalled and deadlocked
as You continue Your mighty work of bringing in the end time harvest,

Join too in this heart cry Prayer for the Land, in which I took verses from Jeremiah and set them to the beautiful music of Dvorak. We can apply them, of course, to whichever land the Lord leads us to focus on.

Banner headlines tend to focus on immediately impactful and, to some extent, measurable matters. For instance, when airport transport security staff fail to report for duty, the headlines are quick to announce how long the queues are. Focusing on these outward signs, however, may somewhat blur the wider implications of all that is now being shaken in Trump’s explosive second presidential term.

In that respect, even what happened with ICE in Minneapolis was but a symptom of something thinly veiled as ‘Christian’ and good for America, but which was in fact deeply provocative and polarising. Neighbours are turning against neighbour, and many people are living in fear.

Yet, while we recognise that Donald Trump precipitated this state of affairs, worsening the already deep divisions and polarisation in America, we must beware ‘ochlocracy’ (mob rule). Major protests do sometimes bring about good things (Trump, after all, finally scaled down his blatantly brutal ICE operations after the protests over Alex Prettie’s death) but it is worth remembering that it was baying crowds who demanded that Jesus be crucified.

As everything becomes more insecure – and expensive – we all look for stability and order. As a writer, doing my best to assemble words with precision, to bring order to them. Alliteration is one way in which I am able to give expression to the depth of distress I feel. President Trump has handed power to populist people who corral and control without caring one wit for those in their charge, whilst seeking to cut off their capacity to question his stance. So many areas of American national life are being reshaped, from electoral boundaries outwards, upwards, and downwards – and, with the extension into war with Iran, this is now affecting the whole world.

So let’s pray for our disturbed and disturbing world, and call for the nations to ‘hear the word of the Lord.’

We pray for Asian countries, such as the Philippines and South Korea, which import respectively 98% and 70% of their crude oil from the Middle East, are being particularly badly hit. But so too are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan and more. (It will surely soon it will be our turn – the war is already increasingly prices exponentially across a very wide range of good and products.)

In Pakistan, schools have been closed for some time now, with children being obliged to learn remotely. Pakistan has close historical and religious ties with Tehran and is on friendly terms with it politically. But, it is also theoretically friendly toward the United States, although the ast majority of the people favour Tehran in this war.

To add to the complexity, Pakistan has a mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia, whereby an attack on one partner is considered an attack on both. If Saudi Arabia were finally to cast off its iron restraint and fire back at Iran, Pakistan would be expected to take its side. Thus it is that one country after another risks being sucked into the conflict, with all the risk of the world finding itself back in the territory of events at the start of the First World War.

Pray for Pakistan in this difficult position. Unsurprisingly, it would much rather position itself in the role of a mediator, rather than a combatant. Father, we pray for this country now in Jesus name, that You will draw many to the Yourself despite the restrictions of oppressive Sharia law.

Time Magazine offered a comparison between the dilemma faced by President Jimmy Carter concerning Iran, and Trump’s own response. Whereas Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth disgustingly asserted “We negotiate with bombs,”  Carter warned, “Once we start killing people in Iran, where will it end?”

In an article called The Gulf Crisis: A high-speed confrontation reshaping global power in Pattaya Mail, an English-language newspaper in Eastern Thailand, Andrew Wood writes that this is a region where,

‘local tensions carry global consequences. What is different today is the level of interconnectedness. Energy markets, aviation networks and tourism flows are tightly linked — disruption in one area quickly spreads to others. At present, the situation sits between containment and controlled escalation. The greatest risk lies not only in deliberate action, but in misinterpretation. In a fast-moving environment, signals can be misunderstood and intent misjudged — allowing events to move beyond control.’

There are many who see this ‘war of choice’ as an expression of Trump’s hubris: mistakenly assuming that he could do what he did in Venezuela and decapitate the Iranian leadership with technological skill. Iran is not Venezuela, and he has completely failed to take into account that his actions would not in the least make the regime roll over and bow out.

The difficulty with writing on current affairs is that, within a short space of time, options and possibilities shift and change! This article, about the possibility of Trump putting boots on the ground in Iran, is written from a staunchly anti-war perspective, and contains sobering thoughts about why such an escalation would be potentially disastrous for the world economy – unless a stabilising deal is achieved.

Father the world has crossed the Rubicon in many ways already. There seems to be no return as local conflicts collide with great power rivalries. We cry out to You for Your divine restraint on the nations now as alliances, commitments and economic chokepoints combine to create a high-risk scenario for wider conflict, and surging energy prices and disrupted shipping lanes are causing so much suffering all around the world.

At this time when global conflict is so close to breaking out, we acknowledge before you, Father, that we have brought so much upon ourselves but we ask You, even so, give wisdom to those who are seeking to mediate with and between the nations. Save us we pray from embarking on the spiral of escalation that engulfed the world in war in 1914 and 1939 we pray — and be with all who are most directly affected.

Photo by Jeff Kingma on Unsplash