Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Prayer and Fasting for the Rosebud - Day 4

Continuing the "war on suicide" for the Rosebud Reservation's people, we hear and pray "the whole armor of God" (Ephesians 6).

14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth...

Warriors wear belts to secure various pieces of armor, to carry weapons and other equipment, and even to hold their internal organs secure when wounded. There is one Truth, THE Truth, and that is Jesus Christ.
  • In Christ, all things hold together (Colossians 1:17)
  • Christ gives his church all the equipment it needs (Ephesians 4:7-16)
  • Christ heals us of the spiritual wounds that should destroy us (I Peter 2:24)
Prayer:
Jesus, you are The Way, The Truth and the Life. I
bind myself up with all that you are.
"I bind this today to me forever By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation; His baptism in Jordan river, His death on Cross for my salvation; His bursting from the spicèd tomb, His riding up the heavenly way, His coming at the day of doom I bind unto myself today." Jesus, let me never enter battle with our spiritual enemies unless I have bound myself up in you. And bound up in you, let me fight in prayer for those oppressed by suicide on the Rosebud. In your Name I pray.

...and the body armor of God’s righteousness.

Ever worn body armor? Maybe a chest protector in baseball, or football pads, or protective gear in a martial arts or self-defense class? Maybe even police or military kevlar?

If you have, you know that it does not protect you from pain. It hurts to take a blow, even with the stuff on. You can be badly bruised and marked, even though you wear it.

But it keeps you alive. It protects your vital organs so you can recover to fight again.

God's righteousness is our armor - our breastplate. And God's righteousness is not in our own works, but in the perfect submission of Christ to the Father's will, offered sacrificially on the cross for us.

Prayer:
In the cross of Christ I glory
Towering o'er the wrecks of time,
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.

Jesus, we plead only your righteousness in our defense. The spiritual enemy is so skilled at shaming and blaming, and will come at us with humiliating accusations. Help us bear them, even if they are true and painful, by placing your perfect righteousness between our souls and our deserved judgment. So protected, help us to wage battle for the souls of people on the Rosebud, who are being degraded to the point of suicide. We ask this help in your Name.

Prayer:
Jesus, give yourself to the Sicangu Lakota Oyate (pr. Si-CHAN-goo Lah-KOH-tah Oh-YAH-tay) - the people of the Rosebud Reservation. Be known to them by overthrowing the oppression of suicide among them. We pray in your Name.

Itancan, onsiundamiye (pr. ee-THAN-chan, ohn-shi-OON-dah-mee-yay)
Crist, onsiundamiye (pr. Kreest, etc.)
Itancan, onsiundamiye

(Lakota Kyrie - "Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the meditations, and for the phonetic spellings of the Lakota phrases.

It's no accident that the first piece of armor we are urged to put on is the belt of truth. This is apt, not only because it's what a soldier would put on first, but because the main weapon that the enemy uses against us is deception. Recall that we are admonished to stand "against the WILES of the devil" in Eph. 6:11.

We need divine revelation or truth to resist being taken in and deceived by the tricks of the "Father of Lies." And the suffering people of the Rosebud Reservation have fallen prey to the hopelessness and depression that Satan has been sowing among them.

As light drives out darkness, so may the truth of the gospel drive away the spiritual darkness and despair that is so rampant on the Rosebud.

Lord, have mercy. Or as I now know to say, "Itancan onsiundamiye."