As chaos reigns in Ukraine, Christians around the world are turning to God in prayer.
Faithwire has reported of prayer gatherings between Christians and Jews, of Ukrainians coming together in public squares to seek God’s guidance, and of religious and political leaders invoking the sovereignty of God. Others, still, are calling for a day dedicated to prayer for a nation under assault by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said that, as Christians, “our response to a crisis must be rooted in prayer.” As such, he invited believers to join together Sunday for a day of prayer for the situation in Ukraine.
“In these days of uncertainty and fear, we pray that each of us might again turn to the Lord and receive God’s gift of peace, work for God’s justice, know God’s reconciliation and love, and choose paths not of hatred or destruction, of violence or retribution, but God’s way of justice, mercy and peace,” he wrote in a pastoral letter published Thursday.
Welby spoke about the attack on Ukraine during an interview on BBC Radio.
“To wake up to the news of war is terrible,” he said. “To wake up to its reality is orders of magnitude worse. Shakespeare refers to war as chaos — the loosing of the dogs of war — and calls for one of his characters to cry out the warning about what it means.”
“Those in the Ukraine will be thinking of their relatives on the front lines or their friends on the front lines,” the archbishop continued. “We are thinking: ‘Where is it going to go next?’ Politicians are thinking: ‘What do we do?’ In all the thinking, in all the responses, there is the great uncertainty, which is the worst enemy of good decisions. Uncertainty leads to fear, fear leads to overreaction. How do we react well?”
The answer to that question, Welby rightly went on to explain, is found in Jesus.
“Right at the end of His life, Jesus Christ — on the eve of His crucifixion — spoke to His disciples and He said something very memorable: ‘In the world, you will have trouble. But do not be afraid. I have overcome the world.’ For me and for many of faith, the great certainty in the world, the only certainty, is that we know that God does not change. Let us find our resolution, our peace, our certainty … in the knowledge of the eternal arms that hold us. May God be with those who suffer today.”
CBN News senior international correspondent George Thomas echoed the archbishop’s words, urging Christians to come together to pray for Ukraine this Sunday, Feb. 27.
“Will you join them?” Thomas asked from the balcony of his hotel room in Lviv, Ukraine. “And will you join us, the entire world, in this prayer?”
Many U.S.-based Christian leaders and politicians are calling for prayer, too. Read about that here.
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