Okay, I don’t like reading the news or watching it on television. Thirty years ago, I used to work in radio and regularly had to read the news on-air. Even then it was depressing. I think it may be worse now.
But if our faith means anything it means living in the real world with all its struggles and pain. It means praying in the face of all the bad stuff the world brings. So, we really should pray the news. It’s sometimes our only useful response.
Don’t misunderstand, we can have an impact on world events with how we vote, how we spend our money, opinions we share, and how we treat people around us. Sometimes people respond in powerful ways to global emergencies with donations or even going to help physically in the face of need. But we can also reach beyond our circle of influence by praying into the world and its needs.
Open your computer or newspaper and find out what’s happening. Then ask God to help you pray into the situation you’ve read about.
BTW if the term, “newspaper” seems foreign to you, “NEWS”, meant “North East West South” as it reported what is happening all around us.
A “NEWSPAPER” was a printed paper periodical, published usually daily or weekly that reported on events in all directions around us. Thousands of newspapers have ceased to publish around the world in favour of digital media so they are no longer a daily part of most of our lives.
Back to praying.
You can pray in broad terms to end a particular war or famine or whatever. Or you can pray in more personal terms for particular people in a difficult situation. You may see names of individuals you can lift in prayer even in larger events. I honestly, find it easier to pray for people not big events and my philosophy is that it’s people who make up or are impacted by those events.
And then believe that your prayers have made an impact. You may not see it. But believe it. We serve a God who cares for the great and the small. He brings justice to those in need (Isaiah 51). His heart breaks for the downtrodden and victim.