Reflections for Youth - Peace and Prayers for Everyone
One of this week's scripture passage from the New Testament is a bit of a challenge for me. Maybe it is for you, too.
Near the back of the Bible, in the books of the New Testament, are the epistles. These are letters mostly believed to be written by Paul (or one of his followers) to communities of Christians in other places. The book of 1 Timothy is Paul's letter to a young many named Timothy who was in the town of Ephesus in Macedonia, where they had begun a church.
Paul's letter contains instructions on how to teach the new believers in Christ who lived there.
Read 1 Timothy 2: 1-7
His main instruction - Pray for everyone. Yep, everyone. Every single person whether we like them or not. Pray for every single stinking person - the evil people, the people that cause harm and chaos in the world.
Paul tells Timothy to teach the people to pray with no exception.
That's the challenging part. For me, one of the hardest things to reconcile is that God is for everyone. Even the terrible people.
It's easy to pray and give thanks for our parents and other family members, our friends, teachers, doctors, and the leaders of our country who we support and uplift. We are thankful for their care. We want the best for them and we ask that God would give them the wisdom to do their work in the best possible way.
It is difficult, however, to understand how to pray for those who hurt us. We know there are evil people who do evil things. We don’t give thanks for the evil things they do, but we can pray that they will accept God’s love and turn their lives around for the better.
Through his letters, Paul is calling for peace in the church and says praying for everyone is a way for people to achieve it
The word peace in Hebrew is Shalom. In Greek, the word is "Eiríni" and has a broader meaning than the absence of conflict. It means wholeness, health, prosperity, and good fortune. It is closer to the phrase "the common good." I think that this is the kind of peace that Paul is writing to Timothy about. Paul is calling the church to actively seek this wide-ranging peace with the world.
Paul teaches in this passage that there are three types of prayers that should be prayed on behalf of all people.
Prayers of supplication or petition are respectful and humble requests to God for something desired. Intersession is a prayer to God on someone else's behalf. Thanksgiving (this is the easy one for most of us) is an expression of gratitude to God.
it is definitely not easy to pray all the horrible people that do horrible things, but these prayers can help remind us to see all people as a child of God. Being able to see others as a person created in God's own image, just as we are, maybe will change us.
Questions to think about:
Think of a powerful person or leader in the world. After reading this passage in Timothy what would you pray for them?
How can you change the way you pray?
What do you need to let go of in order to pray for everyone?
Which of the three types of prayer do you feel most comfortable praying? Which is the least comfortable for you?
Near the back of the Bible, in the books of the New Testament, are the epistles. These are letters mostly believed to be written by Paul (or one of his followers) to communities of Christians in other places. The book of 1 Timothy is Paul's letter to a young many named Timothy who was in the town of Ephesus in Macedonia, where they had begun a church.
Paul's letter contains instructions on how to teach the new believers in Christ who lived there.
Read 1 Timothy 2: 1-7
His main instruction - Pray for everyone. Yep, everyone. Every single person whether we like them or not. Pray for every single stinking person - the evil people, the people that cause harm and chaos in the world.
Paul tells Timothy to teach the people to pray with no exception.
That's the challenging part. For me, one of the hardest things to reconcile is that God is for everyone. Even the terrible people.
It's easy to pray and give thanks for our parents and other family members, our friends, teachers, doctors, and the leaders of our country who we support and uplift. We are thankful for their care. We want the best for them and we ask that God would give them the wisdom to do their work in the best possible way.
Through his letters, Paul is calling for peace in the church and says praying for everyone is a way for people to achieve it
The word peace in Hebrew is Shalom. In Greek, the word is "Eiríni" and has a broader meaning than the absence of conflict. It means wholeness, health, prosperity, and good fortune. It is closer to the phrase "the common good." I think that this is the kind of peace that Paul is writing to Timothy about. Paul is calling the church to actively seek this wide-ranging peace with the world.
Paul teaches in this passage that there are three types of prayers that should be prayed on behalf of all people.
Prayers of supplication or petition are respectful and humble requests to God for something desired. Intersession is a prayer to God on someone else's behalf. Thanksgiving (this is the easy one for most of us) is an expression of gratitude to God.
it is definitely not easy to pray all the horrible people that do horrible things, but these prayers can help remind us to see all people as a child of God. Being able to see others as a person created in God's own image, just as we are, maybe will change us.
Questions to think about:
Think of a powerful person or leader in the world. After reading this passage in Timothy what would you pray for them?
How can you change the way you pray?
What do you need to let go of in order to pray for everyone?
Which of the three types of prayer do you feel most comfortable praying? Which is the least comfortable for you?
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