One of the great joys and responsibilities we have at the World Prayer Centre is to pray for a different nation each day. As with everyone involved in any way with the nations, be it political, social and missional or through prayer, the needs, challenges, emergencies, traumas and opportunities are at times overwhelming.

How do we pray, how do we give, how do we support, how do we encourage our global neighbours as well as our local neighbours? In all the pressures of daily life, how do we care for our global Christian family, our local Christian family, and our immediate family?

Christ Jesus, the Son of God, our Saviour, had everything in perfect balance. He knew His mission was for the world His Father loved, for the nation in which He lived and for twelve men He was disciplining. He ministered, prayed and worked with great love, compassion and truth with all He met wherever He met them.

As you read this article, your world is changing around you. As I write this article, suddenly Zimbabwe is in the headlines. Yesterday it was an earthquake in Iran/Iraq. Last week the leaders of Saudi Arabia were announcing great changes in the nation. Who knows by the time you read this, what else will be happening, what else God will be shaking, what other dramatic news will be hitting the headlines. And that is the point of this article. You have this magazine because you are a watchman or God may be calling you to be a watchman.

The Scriptures teach us to ‘watch and pray’. So not only are we looking, listening, observing all that is happening in the world, but also watching to see all that God is doing in His world.

We know that generally the media only reports on the failings of nations, governments, those in positions of responsibility and individuals. As Christians we note those things, we do not condemn but we pray. At the same time we recognise that as we are seated in heavenly places in Christ, we not only see what the media see but we see how the Kingdom of God is growing around the world. Day after day, sometimes in the midst of great persecution and need, thousands of men and women, boys and girls are becoming followers of Jesus. Of His Kingdom there is no end.

Thousands of young people and children are involved in prayer and mission in their nations. Churches are being planted at an unprecedented scale. Many across the Middle East are physically seeing Jesus and becoming Evangelists and Pastors. Many prayer houses are springing up, 24/7 prayer places, prayer in public places that changes the spiritual climate in a community or nation enabling the good news of Jesus and His saving work to be experienced.

Please don’t fall into the trap that there is so much going on we don’t know where to start. As you hear the news today, watch and pray. Let’s encourage one another to stay alert as we go through the day. Let us look for the stories of where God is at work and rejoice and let us understand that as we stand on God and the promises of His word, our prayers prayed in the name of Jesus change situations, remove obstacles, bring down walls in families, communities and nations.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Ian Cole is the founder and visionary of the World Prayer Centre in Birmingham.

Sony’s new animation picture, The Star, was released on 17 November. The film’s director said they are preparing for the movie to be this generation’s Christmas classic. It is the first faith-based animation film to hit cinemas since Prince of Egypt in 1998. The director added, ‘We’re living in divisive and stressful times, and we read about violence continually. The power of this story is - many people from different walks of life. The “three kings” are upper-class foreigners, and the local shepherds are the bottom of the working class, making note that Jesus brought people from all walks of life together. The Star is “the greatest story never told”’.