Years ago I asked God to show me His pain and He answered my prayer and showed me so many injustices, so many issues that need His grace and the compassion and mercy of His people

I invite you to reflect on three critical needs we should focus on with our prayers and our global resources.

I offer some statistics that highlight the issues; the data may or may not be up-to-date, so please focus on the need and not the precision of the statistics.

POVERTY

Too many people live in poverty. The Statistics Brain Research Institute reports that 50% of the global population lives on less than $2.50 a day; that’s a total of over 3 billion people living on under $2.50 a day. Meanwhile twenty percent of the world’s richest people account for 75% of the total world income. Over 22,000 children die daily because of poverty. What would the world be like if we could equalize wealth and end extreme poverty?

Let us pray

Holy Lord, I can only imagine how much you must suffer to see the injustice of poverty. Please help us to do a better job addressing the needs of the poorest people and help us to respond both internationally and locally as we know poverty affects all parts of our world. Please help us to see you in the child hungry and cold and inspire us with new solutions to bring relief, resources and training, so impoverished people can have access to the tools to come out of poverty and become self-sustaining.

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done.” Proverbs 19:17

ABORTION

The number of abortions worldwide since 1980 is estimated in excess of one billion children. This represents an average of 40 million abortions per year globally (from Lifesitenews.com).

Let us pray

Jesus, I am sorry that the world has not taken global decisive action to protect the lives of our unborn children. Some women insist that they have the right to choose to terminate their pregnancies and some governments have protected this right through law. I know this law is against Your Holy Law that we protect all forms of life, especially human life. I don’t understand why we call the killing of a newborn child ‘murder’ but the killing of an unborn child a ‘legal right/choice’ in so many places. Jesus please have mercy on our broken world that makes choices that are offensive to Your holy will. Please inspire men and women who find themselves expecting children they did not plan for to give these children the right to live. Help them to give the gift of life to these unborn, unwanted children and help them to find loving adoptive homes for these precious little ones for they are the works of Your hands and many people would love to raise them as their own.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16

VIOLENCE (data from peacealliance.org)

Violence is one of the leading causes of death in the world, with over 1.6 million deaths worldwide every year.

In the US, one in four women are estimated to become victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.   Globally 35 percent of women — more than one in three — said they had experienced violence in their lifetime, whether physical, sexual, or both.

Five hundred million people live in countries with political instability and violent conflict. Over 100 million Christians are suffering from persecution for their faith. (source: Open Doors) Terrorism is on the rise, with an almost fivefold increase in fatalities since 9/11. If violence containment spending were represented as a discrete national economic entity, it would be the seventh largest economy in the world, only slightly smaller than the UK economy. U.S. National violence containment costs are $6 Billion per day – yes $6 billion per DAY!

While many people feel they have a right to carry a firearm, the prevalence of guns has not made the world safer. More Americans die in gun homicides and suicides every six months than have died in the last 25 years in every terrorist attack and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. In the US, youth homicide rates are more than 10 times that of other leading industrialized nations.  

Bullied victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people in the US according to the CDC. Global suicide rates have increased 60% in the past 45 years; Over 1 million people commit suicide globally yearly. (source – suicide.org)

Let us pray,

Jesus you taught us to love one another as you have loved us, but we have an enormous problem in the world with too much violence, too many armed conflicts, too much war and too little compassion and reconciliation. Holy One, You are a God of peace and without Your grace I know we will continue on a path of violence instead of a path of goodwill. Please help us Almighty God to “Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.” 1 Peter 3:11  We love You Jesus and we need YOU to heal our broken world.  Have mercy Holy God!

Friends of Jesus – we need God’s help to create the type of world we all want, a world where our children can be safe to live and learn and prosper as God intended them to. If you believe in God, then believe in His power to change the world, one soul at a time. Let us unite in prayer daily at the time Our Saviour Jesus Christ died for us, 3pm (locally) as we thank Him for His infinite sacrifice on the Cross. Jesus did not die so we could live in a world where people die of hunger, fearing violence and persecution. Jesus died so we could find the dignity that only the Holy Spirit provides. We need a revolution of love to challenge Satan’s force of evil. Believe in God and believe in His will to restore our world and create peace and prosperity for all.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 1 Peter 3:12