Jesus, turn our hearts back to You. The words of Isaiah to the nation of Israel seem to be speaking to our nation as well. Lord, we have let fear creep into our hearts, silent and unknown, and it has stolen us from You. And without You, we have also lost our unity, hope, joy, purity, and love.
We see the scarcity of the sinful world around us. We live in times where nothing is certain; wealth, fame, power, safety. We think that if we could only have the right tools, if we could gather enough for ourselves, if we could only make it a little bit farther, these horses could carry us to safety. Yet we do not realize that fear is faster than any device we could hope to escape on; it will always be faster than us. It travels within us.
We fear that everything we worked so hard to build will be taken from us. That our government won’t act with justice and righteousness. That our homes and lives will be forever altered. That we will be killed in public places or ridiculed for our beliefs. Lord, we are a fearful nation. For a nation that claims to be the greatest, we do not live like it’s the truth.
Our fear prompts us to argue and bicker, and disunity is our only commonality. We fight and we kill and we hide and we point the blame to protect what we value the most. And if we’re fearful of losing what we value, then we have sorely misplaced our value entirely, for the thing that is truly the most valuable cannot be lost, taken, or destroyed.
In a confounding statement, God, You tell us that we will be delivered from our fears by returning and resting; this contradicts contemporary wisdom! Surely the fears will overtake us all the more sooner if we stop running! Surely we will not be able to stand the tide of the fears that we give power to! But these are lies rooted in fear.
Jesus, in our corrupted nation, bring us back to a place of rest and trust. Instead of running from the fears, let us look to You to be our shelter and protection. Instead of changing our circumstances, change our hearts. Instead of being ruled by fear, let us be ruled by Your perfect love, oh God!
Lord, we recognize Your sovereignty in all things. We place our fears into Your hands tonight. Fear is so pervasive and it takes many forms. Lord, fear attacks the heart, making unity impossible. Before we can stand as a united church, we must first lay down our fears. And it’s when we find freedom in Your abundant love that we do not need to be fearful any longer, for You have overcome everything.
Revive Your church. Renew Your people. Recreate a culture of love and of courage in our nation. Let us be lights in this dark world, and places of refuge for those who are hurting. Remove our fears, so we can be courage for others. Let Your kingdom reign in our hearts. Be our God once again.
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