Help, Lord! O God!

Split the heavens and come down!
Manifest Yourself somehow.
Do what only You can do!

I believe in prayer–passionate, sincere, believing prayer–and this is a vital part of my life with the Lord. But where do we begin with our prayers in a world gone haywire?
Should we pray about the ravaging deadly diseases, hunger, fears, prisoners suffering beyond our comprehension, martyrs, reckless, deliberate, unprovoked killings, wars and rumors of wars?
…Iraq and the brave soldiers fighting in that war-torn country? The men and women who are dying, defending a country that has been subjected so long to tyranny and fear that it seems they cannot comprehend the remote possibility of living in peace and safety?
…our nation so obviously turning more and more from God and accepting as “all right” the radical decline in integrity and moral standards?
…our young people who are meeting temptations we never dreamed of and succumbing many times to those temptations–shattering their lives and breaking the hearts of those who love them?
…the men and women to whom we have given authority in our beloved nation and who are leading us away from the moral integrity known through the years to be the foundation of America?

God, how are we to pray?

So I ask and then I wait and listen carefully as guidance comes:

Anabel, do you believe that God is in control?
Yes, I know–unequivocally–that He is in control–not because of what I see happening now or because of what is predicted for the future, but because He is God.
Is it possible that God has lost or will lose control?
No. That is not remotely possible. He is God!
As you read His recorded words do you understand that He has a plan that
will be consummated despite the tragic world turmoil in which we now exist?
Yes, He tells us that His plan will come about.

For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.
Isaiah 46:9

So I put it all in His omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent hands and I rest in that decision, knowing Him as I have come to know Him:”I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things declares the Lord [I love to be this way TLB].” (Jer. 9:23-24). Oh, I still talk to Him about the frightening, unpredictable possibilities that loom on the horizon. He knows my every thought–my apprehensions and the fear that insists on enveloping me when I listen to and read about the deplorable conditions all around me. I don’t know His plans or the timing of those plans. But I trust Him to bring about the consummation of the passion that has driven Him from the very beginning–to bring about reconciliation between Himself and His world. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (II Cor. 5:19a NAS).

Oh, that You would burst forth from the skies and come down!
How the mountains would quake in Your presence!
The consuming fire of Your glory would burn down the
forests and boil the oceans dry.
The nations would tremble before You;
then Your enemies would learn the reason for Your fame!
…For since the world began no one has seen or heard of
such a God as ours, who works for those who wait for Him.
Isaiah 64: 1-4 TLB