Friday, 15 July 2016

A prayer for the morning after the attack in Nice

By Scotty Smith of TGC

The Lord laughs at the wicked for he knows their day is coming. Psalm 37:13

Heavenly Father, trucks are meant to carry needed supplies to help families grow and thrive—not be a projectile of terror and death, targeting your precious image bearers. I pray for the shocked, grieving, enraged people of Nice, and all our stunned hearts. 

Father, I so look forward to the Day when we’ll actually get to hear you laugh—a laughter that already fills the counts of heaven, and echoes throughout the chambers of eternity. That will be the Day when every expression of darkness and death, evil and folly, meanness and wickedness will be gone… forever. 

It’s hard to conceive of our world devoid of all sin and brokenness, and filled to overflowing with your goodness, truth, and beauty. But you’ve promised that Day and have secured it, through the finished work of Jesus. Though not as quickly as we’d like, but more certainly than we can imagine, the Day of “all things new” is coming. Perfect peace will prevail. No more war; not even one more argument. 

Father, forgive my fearful fretting, cynical unbelief, and vengeful musings. Vengeance belongs to you, not me. My wicked musings deserve your judgment just as much as they require your grace. Make me a meek man who grieves evil, but one who lives with hope. 

So when wicked plots and gnashing teeth seem to be on the increase and righteousness seems to be on the decrease, please, Father, allow us—your beloved daughters and sons, to hear your unmuted, cosmos-shaking, whole-Being laughter. May your joy be our strength, your promises be our confidence, and your timing be our schedule. 

So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ tender and triumphant name.