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LIFTING HOLY HANDS IN PRAYER

by Ong Kok Bin

Yet another child has gone missing. Sharlinie was playing happily in her own world just more than a week back when someone kidnapped her (it's been months now since this piece was first written). A child's happy world has crumbled and turned horribly wrong. Wherever she may be, she must be mighty scared and in great anguish. Her parents too are in anguish - completely distraught and at a loss over their missing daughter.

What has our world come to that a child cannot be safe playing in his or her own backyard?

A politician was gunned down point blank in cold blood - the victim of yet another hired killer. It looks like killing someone else has become an easy way of settling scores or conflicts. If you stand in my way I am going to gun you down - this seems to be the philosophy of the powerful who are in a hurry to gain more power.

What has happened to our human values that we should resort to such violence and greed? Where is the love for the neighbour?
...
"I urge ... that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness," Paul exhorts in 1 Timothy 2:1-2.

When everything turns haywire, upside down; when we are torn inside out, thrown to the lions, so to speak; when all is out of control and hopelessly doomed, there is still one thing that the Christian can and must do. The Christian is to pray.

Since the fall of the first man and the first woman, the devil has got his feet firmly planted in the world. What was 'thorns and thistles' has become an open field for the devil to push, intimidate, humiliate, extort, deceive, steal, ..., and if everything else fails, kill.

Well, almost an open field - for the Lord God has not quite left it all to the devices of the devil to inflict his evil deeds. God has continued to maintain his transcendent presence and interest in the world he has created. Moreover, for the man made in his image, he has manifested his love and tender care (John 3:16). If he would not allow the lily to be scorched dry or the sparrow to go hungry (Mt. 6:25ff.), would he allow his beloved human creatures to be left to the mercy of the devil who does not recognise mercy at all?

That is why we need to pray, to lift up holy hands to the Lord, to seek his intervention when the devil is prowling hungry. The devil may strike our heel; but we will crush his head (Gen. 3:15).

In the meantime, let us pray and pray with 'holy hands'.

Short-Takes
1. Conspiratorial Misrule
2. Redeeming the Time
3. It's an Oily Business
4. Lifting Holy Hands in Prayer
5. A Gracious People
6. Words, Words and Words
7. I Know Whom I Have Believed
8. Of Oddballs and Heroic Fights
9. The People Delivered a Tsunami
10. Joy in Troubled Times

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