“Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare His praise in the islands” (Isa. 42:12).
Our Father, we praise You for Your works of creation, redemption and reconciliation. We rejoice that even now Your name is being hallowed by believers throughout Australia including amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and from people all around the globe.
Our Father, we know that You made from one, every ethnic group of mankind to live on the face of the earth and that everyone is made in Your image. Let us not forget that Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection launched a multi-ethnic family with a glorious racial profile of every nation, tribe, people, and language. Don’t let us stop with racial tolerance since Jesus purchased racial reconciliation and has created one new man.
Help us to stand against the spirit of indifference, alienation, and hostility in our land. Enable us to embrace the supremacy of Your love and to take new steps personally and corporately toward racial reconciliation, expressed visibly in our school community.
Our Father, though we cannot repent for the sins of others, let us not ignore our own. Keep us from blaming others for having burdens, rather enable us to help bear them. Guard us against ignoring evil that does not harm us, but rather to help those who are being harmed. Let our hearts be grieved by all that grieves Your heart, O Lord, our God.
Help us Father, to banish every belittling and unloving thought from our minds. Give us the grace to purge out every word or tone of ridicule or disdain from out of our mouths. Move us to go out of our way to show personal compassion to people from all ethnic backgrounds. Cause us to be Your salt and light in an increasingly hostile society, and grant us the courage to live out strategic acts of kindness, love, and respect.
We pray for continued racial reconciliation in our nation, our schools, and in our personal lives. We thank You Father, for all You have done to sustain our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters through years of suffering and mistreatment. Bring healing to our land, O Lord, for the stain and sin that our history of racial prejudice has spawned. We lament the racial bigotry and suffering that has taken place in our nation’s past and wherever it may continue to exist in the present. If we have ever been a part of this sin, or through silence have permitted this sin, or through fear turned a blind eye to this sin, we repent and ask for your mercy and forgiveness. Father, continue to grow us in this ministry of reconciliation.
We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who alone can make these things possible. Amen.