One Thought and Ways to Pray RE: Ukraine

Today as the number of refugees from the Ukraine grows past 2,000,000, I wanted to share with you one thought about God and a few specific ways to pray for what’s going in Ukraine.

One Thought

First, remember that God is in control of this and He will use this to accomplish His plan, in spite of how evil it is. Read these verses from Psalm 46:

Come, behold the works of the Lord,

how he has brought desolations on the earth.

⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

he burns the chariots with fire.

¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!”

¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 46:8-11

These verses don’t promise that God will end the war that Russia has begun on Ukraine, but they do promise that He can. He often raises up leaders and other means to do His will.

I read Isaiah 45 this morning about how God raised up Cyrus to do His will for His people. Is God doing the same thing through Putin? I’m not equating Cyrus with Putin, but Cyrus did not fear God and God still raised Him up in order to deliver His people.

Of course we must not apply what God did to deliver Israel in the past to specific nations today regardless of their relationship to Him. My point is that God even uses ungodly rulers to accomplish His purposes. Putin doesn’t realize it, but he’s actually a pawn in God’s hand.

Items of Prayer

How should we pray? Here are a few suggestions:

1. For God to end this war.
2. For God to protect and provide for the vulnerable.
3. For God to bring justice for those who have been wronged.
4. For God to leverage the plans of Putin to accomplish His purposes.
5. For God to use this to magnify His kindness in Christ and draw sinners to repentance.
6. For Jesus to stir the hearts of His church to be His hands and feet.

The deacons and I are currently discussing organizations that we feel are worthy of financial support right now. (We excluded Pastor Chris while he’s on vacation.) Stay tuned for that as we just started these discussions today.

If it is the Lord’s will, I will see many of you tonight as we gather around God’s Word and prayer. And hopefully I’ll see all of you on Sunday.