Blog 317: I stand with you

This last week we have watched on the TV, read in the newspapers and looked on social media as Russia has invaded Ukraine, Putin has put his army into a country that is not his, Putin has sent missiles over into Ukraine, people have been killed, children have had to be evacuated, families have been torn apart, men have had to say goodbye to their wives and children, children are having to live underground to protect their lives, babies are being born into a war torn country, families are fleeing for their lives, no one knows when they will be able to go back to their homes, no one knows when they will see their loved ones again and no one knows how long this war will last.

War is a nasty thing and it is even worse because it is driven by one person, by their own desires, by their own minds, by their own stupidity, by their own ignorance, by their own minds, by their own big-headedness. The truth is that this is Putin’s war, he wants to be in control, he wants people to do what he wants, he wants to have more land, he wants to rule over more people and he wants to do what he thinks is best for him rather than thinking about other people and their lives. No matter what Putin does, no matter how he acts, no matter what he says my heart breaks for those people of Ukraine, my heart aches for those children who have fear in their eyes, my heart aches for those families who have been separated, my heart aches for those men who have had to go and fight, my heart aches for those babies born into this world, my heart aches for the Nation of Ukraine.

There will be so many bad things that come out of this war between Ukraine and Russia but I want you readers to know that no matter how you stand on this and what your thoughts are we need to think of the people that have been caught up in it and think of those people that will be caught up in it in the future. People will loose their jobs, people will loose family members, people will loose business, people will loose their homes, people will loose so much. We can sit back and look on and what is happening or we can take action, we can give money to charities helping those people out there, we can offer up supplies to those people who need it, we can give our time but most of all we can pray. We can pray for those people in Ukraine who have and will be affected by this war, we can pray for the people of Russia who will be effected by the global sanctions, we can pray for the church that they would know what to do and would be able to help those people who are in need and and we can pray for Putin that he would come to his senses and end what he has started.

I know the latter is a hard prayer to pray but Putin has been filled with so much evil and he has got so much bad blood in him that he needs to know what he is doing and he needs to have a change of heart. There are so many bad things going on at the moment and we need to realise that it is God that is in control, we do not know why these things are happening, we do not know what is is going to happen in the future and we do not know what God has planned but what we do need to know is that God is in full control and as much as it may be hard we need to fully trust in Him. We need to fully realise that God gives and takes away. He will give us the strength to keep on going and he will take away the things that will harm us.

Will you join me today in praying for Ukraine? Will you join me in praying for the people of Ukraine? Will you join me in praying for the leaders of the two nations? Will you join me in praying for these things? I know that it may be hard and we may not understand everything that goes on but we need to pray for peace, we need to pray that the church will grow and we need to pray that God will have His hand on those people who are in need.