Jan 20: Weekly Reading- Feeding the 5,000; The Giver & Insight Post by Kim Feld

  -   January 20, 2025

Monday Insight Post
by Kim Feld

I’m going to take a brief detour from our BRP today as we reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and witness the inauguration of the 47^th President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Dr. King preached about love as having the power to change the world. I found this prayer that seemed appropriate. I have also included a prayer for our incoming President, Vice President, cabinet, and advisors. I hope you will take a few moments to reflect on them today.

“A Liturgy for Loving Your Enemies” (Elledge & Moore, 2024)

Oh Author of Love,

It is easy to love those who love us back, trusting in the same and familiar,
showing kindness to those who show kindness to us.

But You have shocked us with an opposite way – one that shows mercy to our enemies
and compassion to those who mistreat us.

How can this be, Lord, when the need for protection is so great
and the cry for justice will not be silenced?

We cannot but ask, Do You care that we have been harmed and cheated?
Do You care that we have been bewildered and humiliated?
Look upon us now in our anger and disillusionment.
We hold our enemies up to You, and say, Look! Hear! Help!
Something must be done, and we trust You to do what is right.

In the meantime, we call to mind the mistreatment that Christ endured at the hands of His own community. We call to mind His sacrifice that made wrong things right, His surrendered trust in the Father, His acceptance of beating and mockery with resurrection right around the corner.

May we follow Your example and make space in our hearts for those who believe differently, speak differently, see differently – even if those differences offend us.
May we not villainize each other with our disagreements but seek to understand before we are understood.

Oh Lord, we place the burden of justice upon Your shoulders and leave the responsibility of revenge up to You. Your heart is pure. Your intentions are good. Your love is fierce and sees all things clearly.

May we trust when You say You will repay and believe when You say You will restore what has been taken away. May we care for our enemies and meet their needs, no longer fighting evil with evil, but overpowering evil with good.

Amen

A Prayer for the President, Vice President, Cabinet, and Advisors

(Brown, 2025)

King of the Earth, we pray for our President. Please give him divine wisdom to lead this country. We pray that he would serve and revere You in his words and actions. We humbly ask that You grant him grace to know how to unify our country.

We are facing immense challenges regarding public health, a pandemic, financial hardship, economic shutdowns, racial tensions, devastation from violence and riots in the streets, and great political division among many other things. Our President faces fierce challenges and opportunities on the domestic and international fronts. Please grant our President divine wisdom to navigate our country through the uncertain path that lies ahead.

We lift up the Vice President, cabinet, and advisors to the President. The Bible and history are full of examples of counsel to the king resulting in laws and decisions leading the entire nation toward peace and prosperity or toward division, destruction, and even collapse.

We pray that You would give the President wisdom to surround himself with counselors who have our country’s best interest at heart. Grant them wisdom to advise the President in the course of action he should take. We pray that You would surround our President with sound, wise counsel to direct him as he leads our nation. Amen

Kim Feld
Executive Director of Education and Outreach

 References:

Brown, C. D. (2025). Prayer guide: How to pray for our country’s leaders. https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/prayer/pray-for-government-leadership.html

Elledge, A., & Moore, E. (2024). Liturgies for wholeness. Waterbrook.