The Essence of Freedom
The current complaint of a racist backlash against Jews appears to be shown by physical and verbal abuses in public spaces, shops, schools, and universities. This makes them fearful. Let’s pray that love that they feel from Australians helps cast out their fear. But we need to understand that this battle for the rights and freedoms of Jews is also a battle for the very future of this country and targets the heart of what we would like it to mean being an Australian. But an undercurrent of inhumanity in our society has appeared that we did not know was there. It is now being revealed by widespread attacks on Jews, including the elderly and children. There are those in the Jewish community who have received support from non-Jewish Australians who understand their situation. This has helped them appreciate this country more. When we see Jews increasingly under attack in Australia, it serves as a wake-up call for Christians that our freedom cannot be taken for granted. We are being told we are supposed to be developing more respect for people, regardless of who they are. It should include allowing people to be able to express their faith freely in action as well as words. Australians all let us rejoice for we are one and free.
Mr. Albanese has said, “I don’t want this to be an issue in which we go through the old culture wars.” But we do know from experience that the spirit of tolerance is not a natural instinct. Sir Robert Menzies said in one of his Forgotten People broadcasts in 1942: “The whole essence of freedom is that it is freedom for others as well as for ourselves: freedom for people who disagree with us as well as for our supporters; freedom for minorities as well as for majorities. Here, we have an idea which is not born with us but which we must painfully acquire. Most of us have no instinct at all to preserve the right of the other fellow to think what he likes about our beliefs and say what he likes about our opinions. The more primitive the community, the less freedom of thought and expression it is likely to concede.” Defending free speech used to be hard but it is becoming increasingly difficult in our woke society with an increased embrace of identity politics and political correctness. To be a free society is to be a tolerant one, but not tolerant of evil. It is one of the paradoxes of freedom that this can mean tolerating the intolerant, loving the unlovely, forgiving the unforgivable and blessing those who persecute us, blessing, and not cursing them.
Let’s pray:
* That more of us especially our national teenagers and young adults, will be given a vision that God wants to use us to bless others especially in the name of Jesus and to exercise our God-given gift of love, to value the fact that we are all different and need greater understanding as we relate to one another.
* Thanking God that as a nation we are not traditionally aggressive, nor self-protective, nor defensive and welcome those who come from different backgrounds.
* That as a nation we will seek the good and not try to fight evil, but instead ask God to deliver us from evil. Let us see temptation for what it is and resist it.
National Braille Week
This week is National Braille Week, which is an annual observance that celebrates Braille, a tactile writing system that allows individuals with visual impairments to be able to read. Discoveries like this are a Godsend to people with visual disabilities giving them access to a much better life than they would otherwise enjoy.
Please pray:
* Giving thanks for the gift of Braille that has enabled hundreds of thousands of people with visual impairment to enjoy being able to read and better understand the world in which they live.
* For those who suffer blindness that they would be encouraged to stretch their capabilities beyond just being able to use braille to harness other technologies that would open up many more doors to a fuller life.
* That God would grant those who are blind the strength and courage to face their challenge with unwavering faith and to believe in God’s ability to heal and restore their eye health, just as He has performed countless miracles throughout history.
Attacks on Jews in Australia at Record Levels
Australia’s Jewish community has suffered its most traumatic year since records were first kept. More than 1800 anti-Semitic incidents were reported across the country. This is a 324 percent increase on the previous year. Since October 7, 2023, the racist backlash against Jews has seen Jewish men, women and children targeted across the spectrum of Australian society, including physical and verbal abuse on the streets, on public transport, in workplaces, shops, parks and online, at arts, music and literary events, in schools and universities and on sporting fields. Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said: “The Jewish community has been permanently transformed by the events of the last year. We have been hardened, shed some of our optimism and naiveté and now firmly understand that the battle for our rights and freedoms is a battle for the very future of this country.”
He also said,” We have had to fight as a community…an unpredictable government torn between what is right and what is expedient and issues of complexity and scope that go to the heart of what it means to be an Australian and a Jew.” Mr Ryvchin said, “Those who hate us also happen to hate that bundle of rights and freedoms we call Western values; free markets, individual rights, anything perceived to be white or European or American. They hate Israel because they stupidly view it as a symbol of all these things, just as the Jews were always perceived as the engineers of capitalism or communism or whichever ideology one seeks to oppose.” But Mr Ryvchin also said that, amid all of these horrors for the Jewish community, it also received lots of support from non-Jewish Australians. “I know many of our fellow Australians understand our situation and we have been uplifted by the daily messages of support we receive. It has made us love this country all the more.”
Please pray:
“If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve Me; if you utter worthy, not meaningless words, you will be my spokesman…” Jeremiah 15:19
* Pray for Australia’s Jewish community, who have been let down by our government and by many institutions, as well as by fellow citizens marching and chanting meaningless, but dangerous, words.
* Pray for our “unpredictable government torn between what is right and what is expedient”. Ask the Lord to give us leaders who know right from wrong and who value the rights and freedoms of Western values.
* Pray that more and more Australians would understand the trauma being experienced by our Jewish community. May we as a nation, and especially we Christians, truly repent of our hard-heartedness and refusal to recognise and support our Jewish brothers and sisters and the nation of Israel. Let us ask the Lord to restore us so we can truly serve Him.
Praying for Issues in the News
* This coming weekend we will see an election in the Australian Capital Territory as well as several Federal by-elections in NSW. Whilst in a number of these elections the results are fairly readily predictable nevertheless let us pray that God would intervene to ensure that His will is carried out in the formation of Governments in the case of the ACT and individual members in NSW Federal seats.
* The following weekend Queensland will go to a state election which is predicted by polls to see a change of Government. Please pray that in this final week of electioneering that voters will truly see the colours of the individual parties and individual candidates so that when they come to cast their vote that would be clear as to the candidates and parties for whom they should vote. Pray God would have His way in the Government and the individual members who are elected.
Praying for our Nation
In the past the morality of the bible was the foundation of social behaviour. Right and wrong were clearly established and consequences clearly defined. Everyone knew the right thing to do even if they did not always do it. Let us ask God for a Government that will lead by example and bring about the strengthening of biblical principals in our social behavior.
Matt 5:17-48, Mark 12:28-34
Source: Australian Prayer Network
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