In only a few minutes, thousands of lives were changed.

We can only imagine what was going through the minds of the people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "Is it an earthquake?" some may have pondered.

And the people in the planes that crashed into the buildings, as well as the one that crashed in Pennsylvania -- we can only speculate what went through these people's minds as the planes sank.

As the smoke and debris clog the air for many blocks, we stand in a stupor in front of our television sets. "But this is the Land of the Free. Things like this just don't happen here!"

Perhaps now we will have a better understanding of what people go through on a daily basis in Israel. What seemed like a problem isolated to a remote part of the world is now part of our immediate reality.

Why the United States? Perhaps because she is the only nation that firmly stands with Israel. As over 150 nations voted to proclaim Israel a racist state at the recent conference in Durban, only the United States had the courage to walk out of the proceedings.

We can get angry, we can cast blame -- but we cannot hate. It is so difficult to hate the evil actions of a particular group of people and not hate the people themselves. But we are God's people and must pray for our enemies as well as our loved ones.

As the weeks unfold, the dead are counted and those responsible are caught, all eyes will be on Israel. We now know what the 'other side' is capable of; that they will not stop until all nations have turned against Israel (Zechariah 12:3).

We, as Believers, must devote ourselves to prayer. Pray for the victims and their families. Pray for the government leaders and the people of the nation. Pray for Israel, and yes, pray for those who are against Her: for the spirit of deception to vanish and the blinders lifted from the eyes of anyone, Arab or not, who would come against the Holy Land.

Most of all, we must pray that the LORD makes His presence very real to us, even though we do not always understand His ways. Every battle concerning Israel is spiritual. And now, even for those who have never given the situation in the Middle East a second thought, it is unavoidable.

Copyright 2002