Oración referente a misiles y el alto el fuego

I heard the explosions before I heard the sirens. In my half-asleep state, I wondered if someone had dropped furniture downstairs, but I figured no one was up yet. During military operations the local news stays live while rockets are firing, so I’d kept the news on all night; I was jetlagged, and my kid was feverish with the latest variant of COVID. I realized what I had heard was the Iron Dome shooting down two rockets from Gaza when I saw the headline flash across the bottom of the screen, “Rockets fired on mountains of Jerusalem.”

It takes nerve to fire on Jerusalem for three reasons: 1. Firing on a nation’s capital allows Israel much more international support to respond. 2. These “homemade” rockets are very inaccurate and there is a high Arab population in and around the Jerusalem area. 3. The farther a rocket is fired, the more time the Iron Dome has to catch it so getting an actual hit near Jerusalem 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Gaza becomes more difficult.

As dramatic as my morning may sound, the two “booms” I heard were nothing in comparison to the towns 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of us who had hundreds of rockets fired on them during one weekend.

As this news and prayer letter usually goes out on Tuesday, I casually gathered information to share on Friday when the operation started. However, by Sunday night, Israel said it had reached its goals for the operation and a ceasefire was called. The whole thing began and ended so quickly international news was still talking about Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan when Israel was hanging up their flight jackets. The suddenness of the operation and the short span of it made it so that even Israelis were caught off guard as to what sparked it. This operation also was radically different than last year’s in several ways. All this to say that a few paragraphs in the weekly prayer letter would not do this topic justice. Therefore, I will be writing a full article about it in the next Maoz Israel Report.

In the meantime, a ceasefire is always fragile, and this topic needs our prayers!

• Father, You are the Lord of Hosts of Heaven, the God of Armies.

• We thank You for the restraint Israel’s government had in not continuing the fight once their specified goals had been reached.

• We thank You for protecting Israeli families from physical harm and ask for healing for all those who were treated for shock and PSTD issues.

• The government may pay Israelis back for economic damages they suffered, but we ask for You to restore to them in ways only You can.

• We grieve the loss of uninvolved residents in Gaza, including the families and children killed by stray Gazan rockets. We ask that You use this moment of brokenness for their loved ones to open their hearts to You. Then their hearts and minds can be healed.

• Surely You long for Gazans to know You. Make a way to reach them where there is no way.

• Deliver Gazans from their captivity under the rule of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

• There are human points of view, and then there is Your truth. We ask for Your truth to dominate the narrative if not in the media, then at least behind the closed doors of world leaders.

• These operations only serve as temporary fixes. We are only buying time as the fight against Israel’s existence will always be a passion for those who hate the God of Israel. But You are able to bring extended times of peace to our land. Do it in our day.

• There are many terrorist organizations in the lands that border Israel. Sow division and chaos among their leaders so they will not be able to unite or even function unanimously.

• There are wicked, wealthy men—and nations—who support terrorists and their families to carry out attacks and purchase weapons. Dry up the resources of those who sponsor evil.

• You know the hearts of men. Surely there are those among Israel’s enemies who feel they are truly doing the will of their “creator.” Offer them another path. Meet them as You did the Apostle Paul as he was on his way to imprison and kill followers of Yeshua.

• Surely the more Your praise fills this land, the harder it will be for the Enemy to find a place to place his foot here. Release a spirit of Worship and Warfare intercession. Let Your battles be won in the spirit before we ever see them break out in the natural.

• Let the land of Israel be known as the place where only one God dwells.