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Planting Prayers of Peace - Week Two

September 14, 2025 0 0

 

Seeds of peace

 

This week we reflect on losing peace and finding peace. Sadly the consequence of conflict and evil is wilderness and desertification. But we are not beyond peace, we do not find ourselves somehow outside its reach. God’s peace is at hand, he urges us to find the lost coins, the lost sheep, and go on planting seeds of peace.

 

SEEDS TO SOW: What seeds is God inviting you to plant this year?

 

Read Jeremiah 4: 11-28

A prayer of lament.

This powerful text explores how the consequence of evil is conflict and the destruction and desertification of the land. We have seen this in our own times as wanton cruelty towards people and the planet have caused devastation, war and erosion of natural habitats.

Part of planting trees of peace is being able to lament the peace that has been lost in order that we can move forward.

Q: This is a challenging reading, what words or phrases stand out to you, or make you ask questions?

 

Read 1 Timothy 1: 12-17

A prayer of gratitude.

Paul’s dramatic conversion — from violent persecutor of the church to one of its most vocal advocates — must have been quite a head trip for himself and for the rest of the early church.

Q: What are some of the different ways his backstory would have affected people at the time? What mix of reactions would he have encountered?

 

Read Luke 15: 1-10

A prayer of gathering.

Rather than planting peace, we are sometimes like the Pharisees; we judge from the sidelines and are more concerned with appearances and status. We don’t want to risk contamination by mixing with the ‘wrong people’. We would much rather hold them at arm's length and make the distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’ clear.

But there is nothing arm’s length or restrained about a shepherd tearing over the hillside looking for a sheep, or a woman turning over all the furniture for a lost coin, or Jesus having a noisy impromptu meal in the street. 

And there’s nothing restrained in how God loves us.

Q: How can this reading shape how we think about mission, evangelism and sharing the life changing story of Christ in the 21st century