This week I emailed both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland asking their help in asking the King to announce and hold a National Day of Prayer for peace and reconciliation.

No replies as yet, but I am aware that during the Second World War, the then King, George VI, and Parliament called seven national days of prayer during the six years of war, with as many as three held within the first 12 months because the situation was known to be so desperate. And there have been many articles written about miraculous events which took place during the war.

When people pray, miraculous things happen, and you could argue that many of the British people have lost their way in understanding this. Churches close and merge, young people are not present in so many churches, and anti-social behaviour and mental health issues have been rising.

I have said before that it doesn’t take long for a cultured garden to turn into a wilderness in the absence of the gardener, and we need our heavenly Gardener to be there for us. So, I suggest we need more calls to pray, and more prayer than ever before in the current risks that the world finds itself in.

This week, there have been many, many calls to pray, and prayers in and beyond the United States, as Hurricane Milton neared Florida. As I write this, first responders were assessing the damage, and I understand that the worst of what might have happened didn’t.

Then there are all the personal miracles those of us as Christians have had as part of following Jesus. Prayers for all sorts of things from healing to relationship difficulties to release from addiction, to prayer for guidance in finding a job and the right home. Prayers for ourselves and prayers for others.

We live in desperate times, with the risk of major ongoing conflicts growing and more countries getting involved. It is time to pray and to pray desperately that God will interfere in the affairs of men again for good.

This is reflected in the first verse of a famous hymn: "Come let us to the Lord our God, with contrite hearts return; Our God is gracious, nor will leave the desolate to mourn." 

Prayer changes things, so could we pray as never before?