“What does it look like to be brave enough to […] respect your country even if you don’t agree with everything your country’s leadership is doing? Being brave looks like prayer. It looks like praying for your leaders to come to Christ. It looks like loving the people in your country and sticking to your biblical values.” Annie F. Downs, 100 Days To Brave

The more news we read from around the world, the more we realise that every country is facing difficult times. No country is perfect, no leader is perfect. Right now, my home country is wrestling with Brexit (the UK’s process of leaving the European Union), an issue which divides even within families.

Trusting God with the management of our countries is brave, as Downs writes, but our prayers are heard and effective. We have peace when we keep our minds on God. We are promised that Jesus has overcome the world. We are reminded to ‘not be anxious about anything but with prayer and petition, and with thanksgiving, to present our requests to God’ so that his perfect peace that transcends understanding can guard our hearts and minds. We can trust God with all things. We can be brave.