Recently I shared with you a letter from a CFO leader in Ukraine, a country under severe stress with revolutionary changes. Oksana says that she believes that the time of war is ending, and the response of churches is to pray common prayers and rely on God. Today I saw a video posted by a friend on Facebook of great numbers of people in Kiev praying in the square, and they say it is happening all over the country. There are people from different denominations, who have not spent time together before, praying on their knees in unity for peace, truth and hope. We have prayer in common.
And we have some common prayers in CFO! All of us pray the simple Peace Prayer at 9:00 in the evening in our camps: Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me. Hopefully CFOers around the world continue to pray this every evening, keeping the Belt of Prayer strong.
When Glenn Clark had a prayer project, he would write a pamphlet and share it with others, inviting them to join in the prayer. One example of this is “A Summer of Prayer in Action,” where Glenn uses the model of The Lord’s Prayer to guide people into praying in unity for the world. Glenn says, “My chief purpose in writing this letter is to impress upon one hundred thousand people of America in this year of our Lord 1944 that the chief need of the world today is for serious, earnest training in the arts of praying, loving and building a new world.” He frames “Thy Kingdom Come” into particular prayers for the world during World War II, and addresses particular “trespasses” of the United States in the section on forgiveness. This booklet was recently edited and published again by our Archives Team, and you can read A Time of Prayer in Action here. May God guide your use of this powerful tool.
For Ukraine, I propose that we join together in praying the Peace Prayer at 9:00 every morning, substituting: Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, in Ukraine as it is in Heaven. Let there be peace in Ukraine, and let it begin today. If you are guided to ask another person or group to join you, follow that guidance, and spread this prayer. Let’s see what happens towards a creative peace!