Prayer for Elizabeth City
Elizabeth City has become a part of the story that consumes our society. Another death, another police officer and another time of questioning why did this happen. Where does it all end? Where is God in all of this troublesome time?
The AMEZ Church and the UMC in Elizabeth City are forming a new bond in an effort to be present with the community to provide a place to listen, allowing an expression of the pain, while offering a presence of the Lord Jesus Christ to speak into the lives of all affected by this tragic loss of life.
There is an abundance of pain. The pain of losing a family member to death. The pain of an officer who carries the pain of their actions. The pain of the nationwide injustice becoming a reality in our own area. Our world has been and continues to be full of pain. One truth remains = Hurting people Hurt people. The cycle only continues
But God, long suffering in love, through Christ Jesus, has become present to heal, redeem and restore all of us to a place that brings us to our knees recognizing in humility the pain that we carry and the pain we inflict. God’s presence in Christ disarms our hatred, our injustice, our anger and our brokenness. The love that God brings is unlike any love we have known or any love that this world produces. God’s love is miraculous in its actions and in its existence.
What the world does need now is love, but not any love. Only God’s love can answer the depth of pain and the loss of life. Putting on Christ must be more than just empty words. My prayers are that the reality of Christ’s love will be made manifest in me. I commit myself to abiding in Christ so that the very nature of Christ will become my own nature. I cannot afford to offer anything less than God’s love as offered to me in Christ. The hymn expresses it best “In Christ Alone My Hope is Found.”
What can I do? Look at your friends. Is there any diversity in your relationships? Be intentional in making a friend so that you can better understand how others live that are not like yourself. If you have diversity in your friendships, contact one of those friends and check on them. Just listen and allow them to share with you how they are feeling. We are all God’s Children and appreciating the diversity appreciates the creativity of God.
Please pray with me this prayer:
Lord Jesus, may your hope, the hope of glory pervade every life in the Elizabeth City Area. Heal the brokenness in us all. May your transformation be such that we will offer your love instead of our hurt. We surrender our anger and our hurt to your will and way. Cause us to be instruments of your love as we listen to our neighbor that their hurt might be healed. Pour out the presence of your Holy Spirit, blanketing us with your strength that in your love, injustice will be arrested and that the cycle of hate will be cut off. Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand. Stand for Justice. Stand for the love of my Neighbor. Stand that Christ’s Kingdome shall be established. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Winning them to Jesus,
Gil
If you would like to view past editions of A Moment with Gil, follow this link: https://beacondistrictnc.org/category/from-the-ds/