June is here, and you know what that means: rainbow flags are out in full force, both online and in yards. Your streaming service is featuring a special “Pride collection” of movies and shows to binge during the month, and your local library and bookstores have curated a special selection of books on the topic. 

After backlash against some retailers’ extensive Pride Month merchandising last year, we’re told that this June may bring a more subdued celebration. You might be tempted to simply put your head down and wait it out.

But what if God has something more for us this year? What if we set aside time at the outset of June to adopt a different attitude about Pride Month? Maybe instead of just getting through the month, we could see change both in ourselves and in our community.

I know I need to prepare my heart for Pride Month. What about you?

A Month of Opportunities

As part of my renewed mindset this year, I want to see these thirty days as a season of opportunity. My young kids will see the same flags I do. Perhaps this will spark questions from them, and I’ll have the opportunity to communicate about God’s good design for the sexes and how sin has corrupted that design. 

Or maybe I can begin a compassionate and constructive conversation with someone wearing Pride apparel and eventually have the opportunity to point them to the Savior. We probably won’t have to look far to find these opportunities, but we do need to prepare our hearts to seize them. 

A Month of Prayer

Such recalibrations of the heart will not transpire unless we hit our knees, so may each Pride reminder we pass stir our hearts to prayer. Here are some topics to consider:

  • Pray for your own heart. Pray for greater love and compassion for the LGBTQ+ community. Consider the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9–14). Which one are you most like as it pertains to Pride Month? 
  • Pray for opportunities to know and love a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Consider the story of Rosaria Butterfield and how God used a humble pastor’s dinner invitation as the first step in her journey to Christ.
  • Pray for families of those who have “come out” as homosexual or as transgender. For some, this is the greatest burden of their lives. Pray for opportunities to encourage, give hope, and walk alongside a hurting family member. 
  • Pray for churches to remain undeterred from the truth in the midst of a barrage of false teaching. Pray that pastors will boldly and winsomely proclaim the truth to their flocks, even when that truth is unpopular. 
  • Pray for parents to wisely navigate “Pride” topics with their kids. It’s hard to know what, when, and how much to share. 
  • Pray for young people who are struggling with gender dysphoria to find truth about their Creator and how He intricately designed them. 

A Month of Hope 

My extremely imaginative three-year-old daughter has a made-up friend named “Rainbow.” Sometimes she’ll pretend to go to Rainbow’s house or make a picnic for Rainbow and her other friend “Sparkle.” To my daughter, rainbows are fun and colorful. She hasn’t yet connected the dots between the rainbows she sees on flags and yard signs and the name she chose for her imaginary friend. 

But the LGBTQ+ movement hasn’t just borrowed a beautiful natural phenomenon (or a little girl’s innocent name for her imaginary friend). They’ve latched onto the symbol of one of God’s covenant promises: 

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: I have placed my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” (Genesis 9:12–13)

Most of us know the story of the Great Flood and God’s promise to never again judge the earth in the same manner. However, the rainbow promises more than that. Every rainbow we see points to the gospel.

Like a warrior returning from battle, God says that He set His weapon—His bow—in the clouds. What we think of as an arc is also the shape of a bow, with its business end pointing toward heaven. God’s promise not to flood the earth again is another promise as well: He’s aimed His bow of judgment at Himself instead of at the world. Rather than unleash His wrath on the sinful inhabitants of earth, God promises to unleash it on Himself—a promise He fulfilled at the cross: 

At that, Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword away! Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11)

The “cup” that Jesus would drink is the cup of God’s wrath (Jer. 25:15) that He absorbed on our behalf so that we might be healed (Isa. 53:5; 1 Pet. 2:24). 

Although the rainbow depicted on LGBTQ+ merchandise may have been torn from its original meaning, we don’t have to be daunted by its proliferation. Instead, allow every rainbow display you see to remind your heart of the gospel. Remember that “previously” you too “lived among them in [your] fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of [your] flesh and thoughts, and . . . were by nature [a child] under wrath as the others were also” (Eph. 2:3).

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! (Ephesians 2:4–5)

This hope is available to all who will call upon the name of the Lord, no matter what their sins may be. 

June doesn’t have to be a month of frustration. It can be a month of opportunity, prayer, and even hope! 

Looking for more Pride Month prayer ideas? Check out this post, which includes a “30 Days of Prayer for Pride Month” guide.