Article July 9, 2001 Issue

Praying for the world's children

My prayers were becoming old, tired, and rhetorical

By A. Stephen Green

Thanks so much for the new series, "Praying for the world's children." I pray for the children daily, but with no visible evidence of its effectiveness, my prayers were becoming old, tired, and rhetorical. It's so easy to become discouraged when day after day our prayers are slapped in the face by news reports that the situations are hopeless. I expect this new series to unite all our prayers with the one Mind, providing renewed inspiration and freshness. The first installment in the May 28 issue has already done this for me, and I include for publication my latest prayer for the world's children.

The first two commandments have guided and inspired me in praying for the world's children. Exodus says the Ten Commandments are the words of God speaking directly to the people of the world: "And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (20:1, 2).

The First Commandment—"Thou shalt have no other gods before me"—addresses the question of why it seems like there are so many children who are living less-than-happy lives. If we see children who are sick, starving, lonely, sold into slavery, abused, violent, sexually exploited, addicted to drugs and alcohol, committing crime, then our thoughts about God need to be corrected. Otherwise, we have another god beside the One who delivered the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt—a god other than the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God of love.

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