Prayer for peace in the Middle East

Hello friends,

Much discussion and heated debate is going on about the present Middle-East crisis about the rights and wrongs, the possible solutions as well as the possible outcomes.

What I wanted to do was to lift my own thought away from accusation and criticism to seeing the spiritual reality, which exists apart from the material picture. I know that prayer is effective even when faced with the most virulent dis-ease. It can also be effective when faced with the most hopeless and dangerous conditions of mankind’s making.

A poem by my favourite poet reminds me of the importance of the way I think. (I can’t copy all of it due to copyright reasons, but here is part):

But we, the people, can be in the final analysis
The balance or unbalancing of a continent.

The thoughts I think in the innermost heart of me,
As the thoughts you think in the innermost heart of you,
Pass into the stream of response that largely determines
The thoughts our leaders think, and the things they do.
(From We the people Kaleidoscope Now by Rosemary Cobham.)

When we get pulled into the mortal emotions of anger, hatred, malice, revenge etc, we are not helping the situation, but simply adding to it. When we hate, we become part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

When we love and forgive and identify the person or nation with their spiritual identity, we release the person (or nation) to see the light and become who they really are, claiming their individual Christ-likeness. We never have to love a sinning mortal (who is only the counterfeit of their true identity - the mage and likeness of God). Separate the evil from the person (or nation) - it is no part of who they really are.

Claiming the presence and power of infinite Love, or divine Mind, right where the chaos, fear and hatred is can bring about a solution and a real peace. When we move our thinking from fear and condemnation to seeing the one-ness of God and the universe, seeing that God, divine Mind, is the only power and government, that infinite Love is the only presence and that the real identity of man is Christ-like, this will bring protection and a realisation of what is needed to those involved. (There are hundreds of wartime testimonies that attest to this)

I searched out an article titled “Deeper peace, not superficial calm” in the March 5th 1990 Christian Science Sentinel that I had found most helpful back in the 90’s, when there seemed to be such hope for a lasting peace in the Middle East. (If anyone would like a copy of this article, just PM me)

The writer, Lance Matteson was a field representative of an American private aid agency working to meet the needs of Palestinian groups in the West Bank and Gaza. He describes how several times, prayer applied to a seemingly un-resolvable and entrenched position was able to change it, whether it was conflict and deadlock between the Israeli authorities and the Palestinian institutes and individuals they were working with or within the Palestinian community’s different social and political groups. This obviously happened at a local level, but pebbles thrown in a pond ripple outwards.

He describes one incident where they were trying to build a market but there was deadlock over how it should proceed. Politics had removed the former strong leadership and instead they found “division, inability to decide – an incompetence to all appearances.” Then he realised that he had been holding a very sanctimonious attitude towards the individuals involved, seeing them as stereotypes instead of recognising the Christ in them, so he got to work to confront his own thinking. You know, everything that comes to us, arrives at the door of thought .What we take into our consciousness determines our individual experience as well as the experience of the universe!

Matteson writes: “It was a matter of recognizing and seeing all of the individuals concerned as the children of God. In a way it’s as simple as that. But it did take much work. My prayer involv