Praying the News
The “news” is by its nature, mostly negative. An airliner that makes it to its destination is not news, but one that falls out of the sky is. The national TV networks try to include positive news stories such as “the person of the week” segment on Friday night on CBS, but this hardly stops the bombardment of negative stories. For many Christians, tuning in to the news is depressing, especially in this election cycle. Sometimes we just don’t listen to it, or turn it off rather than listen to a particularly disturbing item. But this is a wrong response for the mature Christian.
The Lord has sent us to bring Him glory and alleviate with prayer and loving acts much of the evil and chaos we learn about and encounter. Negative news gives us opportunities to “stand in the gap” for our nation, and for the salvation and welfare of others. The model for this is Moses, when he pleaded with God not to destroy the Israelites. God informed Moses that He was about to annihilate them after they had defied Him by creating a golden calf. What worse news can there be? And what more authoritative news anchor man? But Moses interceded, and actually changed God’s mind, yes, that is what the scripture says, and the Chosen people lived and were permitted to go on into their destiny (Ex 32:11-14). Here are some practical examples of “praying the news” for the sake of the Kingdom.
Read the full article: “Pray the News – And bring revival to the nations!”
http://anglicalpentecostal.blogspot.com/2016/05/praying-news-and-bring-revival-to.html
I really like the idea of the Christian believer redirecting the negativity of the news as prayers to God for holistic transformation. I am currently part of a church in Lexington, Kentucky that seeks to put this discipline of ‘standing in the gap’ into practice. On Sundays, the pastor asks the young adult group to meet with him and discuss current events from the previous week; as a community, we wrestle with finding God in both the mundane and chaotic events of the week and then offer collective prayers. I really appreciate the practical examples listed in the article. Thank you for your thoughts.