Nick Fawcett (devotional and reflective writer)

Can there be an end to the fighting in Ukraine? Can its desperate people look forward with any semblance of hope? Will anything stop Vladimir Putin in his crazed obsession with power and conquest? The answer to each of those is probably no, yet we cannot just accept such defeatism with equanimity. We need to respond with practical help, as thousands across the country and the world have been doing. And we need to pray that somehow, despite the apparent hopelessness of the situation, with God’s help things can still change. That’s the theme of the following prayer.

God of all,
grant that the time may come when there is an end to division,
an end of aggression,
and end to hatred,
an end to war.
Grant that the time may come when nation respects the right of nation,
when violence is renounced,
when human rights are put before politics,
when people live together in peace.
Grant that the time may come when evil is conquered,
where dictatorships are brought down,
when weapons are turned into ploughshares,
when armies no longer do battle.
Grant that the time may come when compassion is put before ambition,
when the truth replaces lies,
when dialogue replaces confrontation,
when love is triumphant.
Grant that the time may come when cruelty is no more,
when oppression is no more,
when slaughter is no more,
when suffering is no more.
Grant that the time may come when hope replaces despair,
when confidence replaces fear,
when joy replaces sorrow,
when life replaces death.
Grant that the time may come when people build up rather than tear down,
when they construct bridges rather than barriers,
when they heal rather than wound,
when they uplift rather than destroy.
Lord of all,
some will call us naïve,
unrealistic,
to pray for such things,
and in truth we feel that to be true sometimes ourselves,
but we need you today as much as ever before,
for nothing will change unless you change us first.
Hear our prayer,
and bring reconciliation and renewal to our troubled world.
Amen.