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<\/a>When I put the call out to my friends to pray with me, I was afraid of the responses\u2014honestly. I didn\u2019t want to offend or shame anyone, I just wanted to be honest about my pain. I wanted to ask fellow believers to mourn with me and ask God for guidance.\u00a0 I have been amazed at the openness and the vulnerability of the women in this series.<\/p>\nSo, often we shy away from discussing racial reconciliation. For good reason, shame often forces us to find a villain, someone at fault, a scapegoat, an enemy.\u00a0 Unfortunately, most of the time, it\u2019s the white person\u2014the person of privilege that gets shoe-horned in this role.\u00a0 This should not be. When seeking reconciliation,\u00a0 there is no good\/bad person.\u00a0 There is no right\/wrong party.\u00a0 There is only brokenness and healing.\u00a0 There are image bearers and there is The Accuser.\u00a0 When seeking reconciliation, we need to remember, we wrestle not with fellow image bearers, but with that accuser.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, today I\u2019m thankful to share three prayers of women who promise to own their responsibility in this battle by wrestling with the principalities and powers that create the injustice and not the human caught in the crossfire of this spiritual battlefield.<\/p>\n
These women will speak of their repentance and promise to fight against brokenness and not each other.\u00a0 In reconciliation, There is no \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d, there are peacemakers rallied under the barrier-breaking name of \u201cJesus\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n Today, I share prayers three gorgeous prayers from Suzanne Terry, Alyssa Bacon-Lui, and Cara Strickland.<\/p>\n Suzanne Terry is a fiction writer, coffee lover, speech teacher, and book hoarder. She blogs sporadically \u201cA voice is heard in Ramah,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Lamentation and bitter weeping,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Rachel is weeping for her children;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n She refuses to be comforted for her children,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Because they are no more.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Jeremiah 31:15, NASB<\/strong><\/p>\n First, I repent.<\/p>\n I repent that I have hesitated to say these things out loud. Children are dying, and I have hidden behind my privilege and hesitated. I am so sorry.<\/p>\n I repent that every month is not Black History Month.<\/p>\n I repent for the times when I have let my desire for justice be implicit instead of explicit.<\/p>\n I repent for thinking that standing wouldn\u2019t make a difference, so why bother? I repent for that ridiculous laziness and the unbelief that it reveals.<\/p>\n Help my unbelief.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what to say, God.<\/p>\n This useless violence. These broken scales on which we measure fairness and human worth. This arrogance of words, trying to make bandages adhere to sticky wounds where life bled out. I don\u2019t know how this gets made right, God.<\/p>\n Do You?<\/p>\n Let the mothers lament. Let the mothers refuse to be appeased by platitudes and promises. Let the well-meaning comforters grow wisdom and be silent.<\/p>\n Let the mothers\u2019 wail rise. Let it shake the ground. Let it echo through the streets. Let it singe the air. Let it pierce the shadows and turn over every stone. Let it leave injustice without a place to hide.<\/p>\n Do You hear?<\/p>\n Let the mothers\u2019 cries thunder like the approaching abundance of rain. Let their cries be the place where You reside. Stand with them in the fiery furnace of their grief. Comfort them as only You can. And set this world right.<\/p>\n \u201cYour kingdom come,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Your will be done,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n On earth as it is in heaven.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Matthew 6:10<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Alyssa Bacon-Liu lives with her husband and puppy in Los Angeles. She blogs at All Things Beautiful<\/a>, where she writes about marriage, faith, growing up, the pursuit of happiness, and finding the beauty in the everyday. Connect with her on social media: @alyssabaconliu.
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\nare my rights. It starts with a choice to see the image of God in myself, but not in the person facing me.<\/div>\n
\nlet anything in other than what is already inside. Some are blind, eyelids open, but sightless. I
\nbelieve that it is You who allows us to see. It is You who chooses to bring sight, differently every
\ntime.<\/div>\n
\npointing out the image of God I see in others and talking about the pieces that catch the light, I
\nstay silent. I am implicated when I see something and don\u2019t say anything.<\/div>\n
\nit\u2019s worthwhile to open my mouth, anyway? Would you let the right words, Your words, travel<\/div>\n
\non our differences? You were always collecting people who didn\u2019t seem to go together. My
\nguess is that it wasn\u2019t easy then, just as it isn\u2019t easy now. Would You keep collecting those
\npeople together? Would You let us be visual aids for those just learning to see?<\/div>\n
\nfear, or I wonder if it\u2019s my place to speak. Would You take my little voice and multiply it like the
\nloaves and fishes, joining with the company of Heaven and earth so that we cannot be ignored
\nor tuned out? Would You let me hear the sound of it, filtered through Your Spirit, and be brave?<\/div>\n
\nwhose arms are empty? Would you stir our hearts to grief, to repentance, to a protective instinct
\nso strong that we move with super-human strength to stand our ground, between the vulnerable
\nand the sightless.<\/div>\n