There is an immediate and urgent need for prayer that affects all of Denmark (and other Scandinavian countries for that matter) and its churches, one I never so much as dreamed would appear on this website. The request comes from alert and concerned Danish prayer warriors and concerns a deep mood of depression and heaviness of heart and soul that becomes apparent in many people during winter months in Scandinavia. It is a mood altering condition that mental health professionals refer to as seasonal affective disorder. The days are very short at this time of the year because it gets dark around three o’clock in the afternoon and daylight doesn’t reappear until after eight o’clock in the morning. Many people suffer from depression because of the lack of daylight, so psychiatrists actually prescribe lamps and light boxes to provide artificial daylight. Satan uses this situation to cause even some in the churches to consider or even attempt suicide, all a result of this heaviness and depressive mood that we are seeing in so many people at this time of the year.”
My correspondent, a pastor from Denmark reports, “We sense a certain battle fatigue and heaviness about people and even feel sort of weary ourselves from it. When I was praying the other day, the Lord led me to ask for the weak knees to be strong and for tired arms to be lifted. Again today he showed us that a lot of people are under this ‘cloud’ of soul heaviness or weariness, as it were. It’s as though they are sleepwalking, groping around like zombies, and lacking spiritual direction. We felt led to ask the Lord to speak to them as He spoke to Lazarus, to ‘Come out!’ So we prayed that the hand of the Lord would move and awaken, and I sensed a stirring, a moving in the heavenlies.”
At a recent leadership meeting in Copenhagen, Pastor Flemming Mølhede exhorted those present to press on and not to expect harvest without sacrifice—a serious message but by God’s grace one that was offset by intimate worship during which the worship leader prayed, “How can we even worship you Lord as anything we sing or say is so inadequate.” But, the Lord spoke to our hearts with an encouraging, spirits-lifting word assuring us that ‘Your very lives are an act of worship.’ How encouraging when we are all feeling a little battle weary and see so many needs that in ourselves we do not have the resources to meet.”
PRAY that God would shake life and alertness into those in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries who are depressed and going through daily life as though “weary and heavy-laden,” heavy of heart and soul from the lack of daylight.
PRAY for church planting teams that are seeing symptoms of the “down mood” of seasonal affective disorder, in some instances affecting both team members as well as those they are trying to reach for Christ. They sacrifice so much for the kingdom and need strength and endurance with splashes of joy in their serving.
PRAY that many believers in Denmark and committed intercessors worldwide would “grab the horns of the altar” and shake the heavens by teaming up and pressing on in prayer that God would by His Spirit and power lift spirits and bring “daylight” to the depressed and oppressed.
PRAY that the “sleepwalkers” will discover the reality of the hope-giving, soul-saving Gospel of Christ.
