Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

I read in the news this morning that “Twenty rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel from Gaza this past week, Prime Minister Netanyahu told the cabinet ministers.” For those of you who do not keep up with Israel news, Israel and the Palestinians are not in a war. The Palestinians would just like to start one with the hopes that the surrounding Arab countries will come to their rescue.

Psalms 122:6 says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be secure.” When I read this verse I think back to the year 2000 and I was in Israel up early in the morning getting my running in for the day. The only people I seen on the streets were military people with their AK47s hanging from their shoulders. I was stopped by one of them and he told me to not stray far from my hotel, that there was unrest in the air.

Later that day our group was to visit the Temple Mound area. We were denied access because some Palestinians were throwing rocks at non-Muslims. Ex-Israeli PM Ariel Sharon was going to the site that day and some Muslims were stirring up the crowd to riot because of it. The present day Israeli/Palestinian conflict began. I didn’t care anything about seeing a couple of mosques anyway so I was glad to go somewhere else.

The next thing that I think of when I read news “more rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel” is when I was on a mission trip. The guy I was rooming with made a statement that I will never forget. He said when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we are actually praying for the return of Jesus. For truly there will be no peace until Jesus comes back to rule and reign.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for the soon return of our Lord!

Blessings,

Dwight