Prayer Topic No. 3

Praying for the church to become a source of deep comfort for the Jewish people

It is out of this gratitude and out of this humble compassion that we can pray for a third thing: That the global church of Jesus may become an abundant source of comfort for the Jewish people worldwide and for the people of Israel in particular. The Bible gives Christians a very powerful calling and mandate to do exactly that:

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa. 40:1-2).

Here, the spirit of God is speaking to a people which is obviously NOT the Jewish people. He is calling for a people who is to comfort the Jewish people, a people who should speak God’s love and encouragement into their souls, who should speak God’s favor to them – and especially to those, who live in Jerusalem. This is a word to the church for our time. The time in which Jewish people from around the world are being re-gathered by God to their ancient homeland. The time in which Jerusalem is being restored as the Jewish capital of a Jewish Israel.

After the tragedy of the Holocaust just 70 years ago, “Comfort , comfort my people…” has become a word of commissioning for millions of Christians and hundreds of Christian ministries around the world. It was the cornerstone of Christians for Israel and its founders. It remains our cornerstone to this day. Let us pray that the global church of Jesus will be touched and transformed by the love of Jesus for his own people as expressed in these words: “Comfort, comfort my people…”.