We’ve all be watching the situation in Ukraine and Russia become increasingly urgent. It is hard to know what to make of it all and it is hard to know how to respond. How will this reshape our world moving forward?
As God’s people, the one thing we know we can do is PRAY!
Below are some articles and resources to help guide your prayers for Ukraine:
From Religion Unplugged on “Why Some Experts Insist that Putin is Motivated By Religion”
From the Gospel Coalition on “The Ominous Threat Surrounding Missionaries in Ukraine”
From the Gospel Coalition on “Woken Up by Bombs: A Church Planter in Ukraine Prays and Perseveres” and “To Stay and Serve: Why We Didn’t Flee Ukraine”
Scotty Smith’s prayer for Ukraine:
Heavenly Father, among your many names, “God of Peace” is precious, timely, and essential to us today. We rest, revel, and rejoice in the peace you have established with us through the finished work of Jesus. Reconciled, “in Christ,” your beloved children forever—these realities now define us more than our birth certificates, DNA, or anything else. But there’s another “peace”—a glorious shalom for which we long, wait, and pant.
The war in the Ukraine is making the promise and hope of peace on earth our immediate yearning and passionate craving. What did Paul envision with his image of the “soon crushing of Satan under our feet”? Not us crushing Satan, for the Lord Jesus took care of that once and for all. Paul envisioned the Day when everywhere we plant our feet, it will be evil-empty. Satan-void, and your glory filled. Hallelujah!
The promise of “soon” doesn’t come with the hint of which year, decade, or century. But it does come with your guarantee—our Father who never lies or exaggerates. Until that Day, you give us “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” as our inexhaustible supply and incomparable riches. Thank you.
Riches to be spent as we live and love to your glory, take the Gospel to the nations, and go with Jesus into the most broken places. We pray for the crisis, your church, and children in the Ukraine. We pray “soon” will be “sooner.” We pray the hope of the Gospel will topple our fears and fuel our extravagant grace-spending on others. So Very Amen.
Kate Bowler’s Blessing for Ukraine:
God, the unthinkable has happened.
Swiftly, relentlessly,
by stealth and through open destruction,
the peace and beauty of the ordinary,
has been shattered in a day.
O God of justice and might,
We call to you to come and bring this suffering to an end.
Comfort these trembling hearts.
Shield the vulnerable.
Strengthen those with the resources and the resolve
to protect what they love
in the face of such overwhelming force.
Grant wisdom to the nations of our world, to our leaders, and to us,
to grasp the unfathomable,
to see evil in its true light,
and come against it unflinchingly.
Dear Ukraine,
though we shudder to watch what is happening
We will not look away.