GLOBAL CRISIS PRAYERS – Praying for Everyone, EverywhereSample
Day 6. Pray for the Helpless, Hopeless, Hurting, Lost.
Remember, prayer is practical action! Sometimes we feel helpless in knowing how to pray for the down-and-out—especially in crisis times. Prayer isn’t a last resort—prayer ought to be the first! Prayers make more of a difference than we know!
So how to pray for the afflicted, especially in times of global crisis? Start with the world, draw closer to your nation, closer to your state, and closer still to your own community—and list the names of and pray for the physically and spiritually afflicted that you're aware of.
Yet also pray generally as well—grateful for the Holy Spirit's intercession: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" (Romans 8:26).
Pray that the Lord would use His children to help meet the needs of “the least of these,” those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, in need of clothes, sick and in prison (see Matthew 25:31-46).
Find out what needs exist in your community and how your church and local parachurch ministries are helping to meet those needs. List and pray for their efforts.
What is God's Spirit saying to your spirit about your own involvement? While “every need isn’t a call,” some needs are. Ask God how He might use you to be part of the solution.
About this Plan
While we’re called to pray at all times, we especially cry out to God in times of global crises—such as poverty, violence, disease. Yet how do we pray globally? How can we pray for everyone, everywhere? Over the next seven days, you'll find practical ways you can talk to God about people near and far, ensuring that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
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