Daily Devotion for Thursday 6th June 2024
Psalm 5:1-3
Give ear to my words, O Lord; give heed to my sighing. Listen to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.
Reflection
New Zealand is one of the first countries in the world to greet the new day. So when I wake up, I often find emails and messages that have come in overnight from different regions of the world, where others have been working while I have been sleeping. In recent times, these have included messages from Myanmar that make me ask the question, “How do I deal with this, now that I know about it?”
From a young female PCM leader: “We are not safe. Our situation is so dangerous. We can face air raids every time. The green people (Myanmar military) are targeting our village. We are never safe. We are alive with anxiety. Sometimes we are safe and free but sometimes we are waiting for our end … The green people already targeted Tuili school compound and village. One day they must fight. l want to move other place but there is no house. I need to build a house but we have no money for that. So l pray to God to save our family and my village.”
From a PCM church leader in the Chin State: “Some members are in a local IDP camp, and others are under the jungle and forest. These days, the military junta jet fighters are flying over rural villages and dropping bombs daily. We lost many church members including innocent children. Lives of the people in southern Chin are unsafe … No schools have good teaching and health centres have no medicine and nurses. This is our situation. We only need peace in the whole place in Myanmar. We humbly request that churches have every prayer for us and return to a fully peaceful future.”
It’s difficult to digest these messages with my breakfast. I’m grateful for the international ecumenical community who are sharing the concerns and lifting voices in prayer. It sometimes feels like prayer is all we have. But I hold onto this – one day, when this is over, we will meet friends and colleagues in Myanmar again, and we will be able to celebrate their freedom and say: “We prayed for you.”
A Prayer for Peace (from the Brigidine Sisters in Australia)
God of peace, may we become peacemakers by
feeding the hungry,
welcoming the stranger,
planting kindness and nurturing peace wherever we are.
We pray because of our love for Creation
and because of our trust in a loving God.
Above all, we pray for an end to violence,
and for peace throughout the world. Amen.
God of Justice, may we become justice makers by
sharing goodwill,
upholding the rights of all beings,
sharing our gifts and nurturing justice wherever we are.
We pray for these things with humility,
because of the hope that is within us,
and because of our faith in the ultimate triumph of good over evil.
Amen.