Prayer for Korean hostages of the Taliban

In one of Jesus' most challenging instructions we are told to pray for our enemies. This loving prayer for the hostages and their captors was found at Eugene Cho's blog:

Abba Father,

We bow down before You and give thanks that You, in Your triune being, are faithful and compassionate. We are blessed and comforted by your omniscience, your omnipotence, your salvation. We do not understand the choices that You make as You carve out a path of righteousness in the midst of our human garden and water it in the blood of martyrs and the sweat of the oppressed people of our planet and the tears of those who love You.

We are deeply flawed in vision and understanding, but we see Your Son and we read Your Word and we believe that you desire to hear from Your people on behalf of these helpless victims in Afghanistan. We thank You for the trials that we have faced in our own lifetimes, though few of us have known the kind of fear and danger that these young people are facing. We thank You because You have been there when we needed You most and we know that You will be with these, Your children, as well.

We are asking you to strengthen them in body, soul and spirit. Bring Your Word into their minds for comfort and guidance. Pour out Your grace so that they will be able to speak peace to one another. Put Your general commandment for mercy upon the hearts of their captors and grant that their simple human needs may be respected. Heal those who are ill, in Your regenerative power. Provide clean water and proper waste treatment in their environment, Lord. Nourish them with simple, healthful food. Cause Your Love to flourish in their hearts and Your truth to grow strong in this trial.

For those who desire to stage a test of strength between human ideas of “god” that are different, show Yourself True, Lord. Your messenger tells us that God is on God’s side and doesn’t take up a human cause on command, yet when Elijah acted out his drama to debunk the false gods in his culture, You supported His efforts and You came down with power to dethrone the posers.

Come down with power now, Lord, and cause Your free people to remember these and ALL those who are held in captivity because of bad ideology. Bind us together in the will of Your Spirit and bring us to the place of intelligent prayer. Pass our prayers through the mind of Christ and accept our passionate pleas according to His blessed will for humankind and this generation.
Let these prayers be a benefit to those captors who are also captive to an ideology that cannot heal. Let any legitimate cause they have be heard and considered thoroughly. Help us all to amend our ways and expedite our understanding that violence is NO solution.

For those who defend the land and people of Afghanistan, who place themselves in harm’s way because the cause is both good and desperate, be their defender. Protect them from injustice and untimely loss. Be faithful to their families and loved ones. Let their tactics and strategies be effective in every possible case without bloodshed. Let none of Your beloved children suffer blood-guiltiness. If shots must be fired, let Your judgment rule in all the outcomes.

Counsel with the perpetrators and the governments that make the decisions in these matters and give grace for obedience to your counsel. The good that we desire to accomplish escapes us, so make us servants of Your Good Will and peace on earth…

In the unfailing Love of Christ, we ask these things, Amen…


Link here to my previous post about the hostages.