Wartime prayers

Successive wars seem to fulfill Jesus’ prophecy that “there will be wars and rumours of wars.” In the debate about whether peaceful means are more suitable than forceful military ones, opinions themselves often wage a war of words. There’s strife in the press, on the airwaves, and in the streets, but few would argue for peace at any price. Most people want a peace that is permanent, just, and satisfying to all.

Living in this time of war, I’ve prayed to know how I can support the service men and women who are on the frontlines and at the same time help to win the war against war itself.

My prayer about the current war situation has brought to thought something I’ve read in Mary Baker Eddy’s book, Christian Science Versus Pantheism. She wrote, “Pray for the prosperity of our country, and for her victory under arms; that justice, mercy, and peace continue to characterize her government, and that they shall rule all nations” (p. 14).

I thought about how the characteristics of “justice, mercy, and peace” should rule not only my nation but all nations. Surely, lasting peace can’t be achieved without justice and mercy. But the Christian demand to love one’s enemies can be difficult to live up to when the consequences of “turning the other cheek” look not only impractical but unworkable to common sense. When the disciple, Peter, asked Jesus how often he should forgive his brother, Jesus replied, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”

Regardless of the tumult he faced, Jesus’ constant effective prayer enabled him to simply walk through an angry crowd without harm. He never allowed injustice or terror to prevail.

And we can follow his lead in our prayers. In a way, we are all soldiers under arms, warring individually against pessimism, hatred, anger, resentment, revenge, in order to attain the inner security that only purity and love can offer. We may not always be 100 percent successful in working out problems through diplomacy, love, and respect. But each time we succeed in dealing compassionately and understandingly with an adversary, it proves that love and respect are the highest forms of dealing with discord.

To me, these times call on us to turn in prayer to God, rather than to personal opinions about war and the details associated with it. Instead of taking sides, we can trust and support God’s beneficent ends. During the Civil War in the United States, a pious minister told President Abraham Lincoln that he “hoped the Lord is on our side.” The President responded, “I am not at all concerned about that…But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side” (The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House, by F.B. Carpenter, University of Nebraska Press, 1995, p. 282).

Prayer to God who is both Love and Principle is the most powerful weapon against wrong that anyone could possibly employ. It starts with an earnest desire to be a true peacemaker.

Recognizing, as Jesus did, that “there will be wars and rumors of wars,” we can utilize prayer to bring out the light of God’s government. We can pray with the confidence that our prayers will be answered by God, Love, who guides and directs our every movement. This is the most powerful “secret weapon” of all.

Joyce Wethe Robertson lives in Santa Barbara, California, United States.

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