7 Prayers That Work

" The   Lord   is a refuge   for the oppressed,  a stronghold in times of trouble." (Psalm 9:9) Lord God, You see every man, woman, and child in Afghanistan. You see Christians persecuted for their faith. You see women subjugated for their gender. You see men terrified to oppose the Taliban. You see terrorists hungry for violence . You see a people trying to stay alive. You love them, and you are calling them to yourself. God, grant protection over your Afghani children. Bring them into a knowledge and acceptance of you. Protect them and assist them in finding safety. Bring repentance and salvation to those who do evil against their fellow-man. Convict us who are free to help those oppressed by evil forces and blinded by evil philosophies. May we never ignore the misfortunes of those who haven't yet believed in you. God, give us wisdom, compassion, and motivation to assist the people of Afghanistan. We call on your great power as we intercede for these terrified...

  Dear Lord God, Jehovah, I pray for peace and protection in Jerusalem and its surrounding areas ( Acts 1:8 ), for the Israelis and Palestinians and the age-old conflict between them. You love both groups of people. You walked their streets, healed their sick, and prayed on their hillsides. You understand the divisions and hostilities there, and you still long to draw every person to yourselves like a hen gathers her chicks ( Matthew 23:37 ). Help us, in the West, to pray for souls over governments . Give us compassion and mission for all people ( Matthew 28:19-20 ). Convict us when we politicize oppression and applaud violence . I confess our ignorance and our judgment, our self-congratulations and pious condemnations. We are sinners who need you, just like everyone in the world. May we be a light to the whole world, not just the world we think we understand. Help us to pray for those who need your healing touch and protective hand. I want to serve you in the way that glorifies...

Lord Jesus, How can I serve someone today? How can I be YOU to someone else? Maybe a stranger needs a smile and friendly hello. Maybe a neighbor needs flowers from my yard. Maybe my community needs my participation . Maybe my child needs encouragement instead of correction. Maybe my spouse needs affirmation and appreciation instead of my complaints. Maybe that person who hurt me needs to hear that I've forgiven the offense. Lord, you have put people all around me that need to see you in me. How is that so easy to miss? You have put me here to serve others, not make a better life for myself. Lord, forgive me for my selfishness, resentment, and criticism . I want to serve someone today because that's what you do. I want to be Jesus today. No one needs to thank me, notice me, or appreciate me. Only let them think about your great love . Thanks for calling me to serve. In Jesus' name, Amen. "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your serant, and whoever wan...

 Oh, Lord,  You are the God of comfort . Teach me to grieve .  It makes me uncomfortable, but it's so necessary for healing and perspective. Help me to trust your love and care enough to lean into pain and trauma and the wild uncertainty of hard times, of personal and collective  crisis . You are a God of compassion . Teach me to grieve for others. give me perspective and empathy and sincerity that other people's experiences are different and just as traumatic and difficult than my own. Maybe even more! I want to be kind and willing to sit with them in their pain without passing judgment,  assuming I have the answers, or teaching them how to feel or act in their pain. You are a God of forgiveness . Teach me to be forgiving when I feel that someone has wronged me, misunderstood me,  or hurt me. You give us chances, over and over-- a thousand million chances to change, to repent, to revive, to follow. Help me repent of my own sin and refuse to be the judge...

Lord Jesus, You are great and mighty. You use ordinary people to accomplish your incredible work. I'm not sure why. But thank you for the opportunity to go to a mission field this next week to meet people you love and died for, to share the gospel you created, to live like you for a few short days-- Giving myself to something greater than me. Thinking of other people's needs instead of mine own. Talking about what really matters--You. Feeling uncomfortable in order to make someone else feel like they belong. This is your mission. And you call us to it every day. And Saturday, I'm going to answer it. (Click here to read "Why I leave my heart in other countries.") Oh, why don't I answer it every day, all day? Why don't I ache for the people of the world who don't know you and actually disrupt my life to reach them? I ask for your blessing and protection over my trip, yes. But mostly, I'm thinking I just want more of you. ...

Dear Lord God, You forgive us when we confess our sins, and you give grace when we confess the sins of our ancestors-- of our family and our city and our country. So I confess the great wickedness of our nation at oppressing the poor, marginalizing women, minorities, the elderly, and the ill, enslaving the African-Americans, red-lining poor communities, indenturing and imprisoning the uneducated and underprivileged. I confess our systemic white privilege, even as I want to believe I am not a benefactor of it. I confess our sins of racism and segregation, even as I say that I have not overtly participated in any of it. It is our heritage, and we are wrong to minimize its legacy. I confess the church's sins of politicizing moral issues, of drawing party lines through issues of compassion, grace, and mercy-- of using topics of mass incarceration, death penalty, immigration, life, and welfare to divide party lines and provide ease and security for the privileged...

Lord, Comforter and Redeemer, Take these troubled times and bring good from them. Somehow, throw your spirit of comfort like a mantle over the grieving, over those traumatized by the Charlottesville rally, and most of all over those injured and killed there. Infiltrate their homes and their conversations-- let your spirit be felt. Comfort those grieving for loved ones lost through senseless violence. Bring justice, swift and sure. Not revenge. That is not your way. But justice, peace, and sanity to a situation raging out of control. May this tragedy in Charlottesville wake up a sleepy country to the ravages of deep-seated prejudice and hatred. Somehow, draw us toward your spirit of wisdom, fill us with a desire and determination to be loving, forgiving, compassionate, determined. Give us the courage to stand for righteousness, to shirk stubbornness and pride, to abhor hatred. Change us. And even while you work so great a miracle, lighten the heavy hearts of ...