John Piper appears to show the brokenhearted that prayer is necessary during the time of Minneapolis fire and pursuit of justice for George Floyd. He continues his podcast with a prayer, comforting those who are brokenhearted praying for peace, justice, forgiveness, and love in each race without discrimination.
"Hallowed be your name in Minneapolis. Revered, admired, honored above every name, in church, in politics, in sports, in music, in theater, in business, in media, in heaven or in hell. May your name, your absolute reality, be the greatest treasure of our lives. And may your eternal, divine Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord crucified for sin, risen from the dead, reigning forever be known and loved as the greatest person in this city."
"Jesus Christ came on earth for our sins!"
Piper interceded for Minneapolis and prayed over the world being affected by the response to the injustice. He asks for forgiveness for the sinful city on behalf of how George Floyd's mistreatment and is deeply concerned with George's family and asks God to bring them closer during the time of difficulty.
"Yes, Lord. Yes. This is our heart for Minneapolis. We seek her welfare. We pray on her behalf. For those who knew George Floyd best and loved him most, bring them your consolation, and direct their hearts to the God of all comfort."
"For Derek Chauvin, who put his knee on Floyd's neck for seven minutes, until he died, we ask for the mercy of repentance and the judgment of justice. For officers Thomas Lane and Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng, who stood by, we pray that grief and fear will bear the fruit of righteous remorse; and may the seriousness of the killing and the cowardice of the complicity meet with proper penalties."
"For the upright police who have watched all ten minutes of the unbearable video of Floyd's dying, who consider it "horrific" and "inhuman," who find it unbelievable that Chauvin did not say a single word for seven minutes as the man under his knee pled for his life, and who lament with dashed hopes that they must start again from "square one" to rebuild what meager trust they hoped to have won - for these worthy servants of our city, we pray that they would know the patient endurance of Jesus Christ, who suffered for deeds he did not do."
"For police chief Medaria Arradondo, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, our Mayor Jacob Frey, and our Governor Tim Walz, we ask for the kind of wisdom that only God can give - the kind king Solomon had when he said, "Cut the baby in half" (1 Kings 3:16-28), and discovered the true mother."
"For the haters and the bitter and the hostile and the slanderers of every race we pray that they will see "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:4). We pray that the light will banish darkness from their souls the darkness of arrogance and racism and selfishness. We pray for broken hearts, because "a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:17).
Pastor Piper hopes that people will turn to God in the midst of this awful present time. Although the economy is torn down, and the world is in a state of downfall, he claims that it is important to look to Jesus because he came down for our sins.
"And as the scourge of COVID-19 has now killed 100,000 people in our nation, and still kills 20 people a day in our state - most of them in our city - and as the virus wreaks havoc with our economy and riots send lifetimes of labor up in smoke, and the fabric of our common life is torn, we pray that the compounding of sorrows will not compound our sins, but send us desperate and running to the risen Savior, our only hope, Jesus Christ."
"O Jesus, for this you died! That you might reconcile hopeless, hostile people to God and to each other. You have done it for millions by grace through faith. Do it, Lord Jesus, in Minneapolis, we pray. Amen."
