Ryley Heppner

I have often contemplated how I should pray about wars.

My initial thought is always just to pray that the Lord would end them. But is that the best and only thing that I can hope for?

Is the peace which Christ is the prince of, not more than simply the absence of war?

And what if we pray and the war doesn’t end? Is all hope lost?

If you think about it, peace as it is typically understood has not always and automatically produced the best situations.

Peace under King Solomon gave way to idolatry and oppression. Peace in Rome allowed monsters like Tiberius and Nero to ascend the throne. Peace wasn’t the cause, but these things happened during peaceful times, because peace as the absence of war is not enough.

It's something greater than that.

Our peace is his presence.

Perhaps then we ought to pray (and maybe you already do) that violence would retreat, AND that the presence of the prince of peace would invade.

Still, what if the war carries on?

Is there no good that can come during wartimes?

A Scottish minister named James Cooper once noted that before WWI there had been, in Scotland, all kinds of oppressions, materialism, hatred, and unbelief. But then he writes, “Since the War broke out, much of this has already vanished; we are a united people; charities, self-denial, religion have revived at home, and the life-blood of our noblest manhood has been freely poured out in a glorious cause. Who shall say that in the eyes of Him Whose eyes behold the evil and the good, this time of War with all its carnage has been worse than the time of peace preceding it?”

Is it not right to pray to this end – that as atrocious as war is, the Lord could and would do wonderful things through it?

Sin existed before the war. So maybe individual and national repentance can come through the war and/or in the midst of it.

All to say, I actually believe that God hears and answers massive prayers; that the landscape of the world is changed when God’s people pray. So, I keep praying for the war in Iran, and the war in Ukraine, and the war in Palestine.

But I am starting to pray differently than I did before.

1 month ago | [YT] | 2

Ryley Heppner

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5 months ago | [YT] | 0

Ryley Heppner

[www.instagram.com/ryleyhepp/]

6 months ago | [YT] | 1

Ryley Heppner

"But though they know what an insignificant person I am, they approve my letter, knowing that I have not frittered away my long life, but have spent it in the service of Christ Jesus." (Polycrates of Ephesus)

1 year ago | [YT] | 1

Ryley Heppner

Excited to be teaming up with OUTREACH SPEAKERS for the preaching and teaching of the Gospel in more places!

>>outreachspeakers.com/

1 year ago | [YT] | 2

Ryley Heppner

"The only thing that makes death an evil is what comes after death. Those who must inevitably die ought not to worry overmuch about what accident will cause their death, but about their destination after dieing." (St. Augustine)

1 year ago | [YT] | 1

Ryley Heppner

"[James] was often found on his knees beseeching forgiveness for the people, so that his knees grew hard like a camel’s from his continually bending them in worship and beseeching forgiveness for the people." (Eusebius)

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Ryley Heppner

"I often hear people speak of the deconstruction of their Christian faith as spiritual evolution. When I hear that title given to it, I wonder, what if it is actually spiritual devolution?" ...

www.ryleyheppner.com/articles/spiritual-devolution

2 years ago | [YT] | 0

Ryley Heppner

"Phones should be illegal...."


www.ryleyheppner.com/articles/phones-should-be-ill…

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 0

Ryley Heppner

"When I was four my parents took me into my first skateboard shop and bought me my first skateboard. I tell you that not for no reason, but because it has a lot to do with how and why I started really following Jesus and then how and why I became obsessed with studying God’s Word." ...

www.ryleyheppner.com/articles/ji-packer-a-skateboa…

2 years ago | [YT] | 0