THE ‘whispers of war’ are very much in the air at the moment. I found myself thinking of Julia Kelly’s novel when I came across an article by Alan Little on the BBC website entitled ‘War may be coming. Are we psychologically ready?’.

Little is a distinguished journalist who has won many awards for his journalism including the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism. Given his track record I reckon we should take his thoughts seriously.

‘Serious’ seems to be a very appropriate word too because Little believes the government is working on its so-called ‘war book’ (something that hasn’t been updated for decades) and wants us to stockpile canned food and drinking water, strengthen our civic resilience, and plan for the possibility of war. In support of this he quotes the Chief of the Defence Staff who has suggested that, given the current threat from Russia, Britain is living through the "most dangerous" period of his 35-year career in the armed forces.

Little has received support from an unexpected Christian source too because Peter Greig, the founder of 24-7 Prayer is also convinced that Christians should “Prepare for war”. He says this ‘prophetic word’ came to him in March while he was in South Africa worshipping with a group of 24-7 Prayer leaders. It didn’t focus so much on specifics such as timings but on the need for preparation. He initially thought he was ‘barking mad’ he has since subsequently come to the conclusion that it should be taken it seriously.

So how should we do that? We could begin by recognising that peace is a very precious thing. A Ukrainian Catholic Bishop stressed this recently when he said that the years since independence had brought Ukrainians freedoms that previous generations were denied, and that Russia’s full-scale invasion had brought home to him the true cost of war. One of the most significant changes he suggested was the establishment of true religious freedom and that we value peace most when we no longer have it. That’s a piece of advice that we would all do well to take to heart.

Given all this then, it might make sense to put a few provisions away over the coming months, and not just for ourselves but also for those who will find it difficult to do so. We should pray too. We could begin by asking God to give our government the wisdom to know how our defences should be resourced given the current threats. Greig summed this up well when he quoted a senior military official who has said that bullying nations “will totally ignore you unless you actually have the military hardware to stand up to evil.”

Above all though we should pray that we will see God’s ‘Guiding Hand’ interfering in history again (Churchill’s image) so that His Kingdom will come so that His will might be done earth as it is in heaven.