Prayer For Refugees

PRAYER FOR REFUGEES

There are more than sixty-five million refugees and internally displaced people in the world today as a result of war and persecution, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. That is one in every 113 people. Children make up almost half of the refugee population.^a We know from Scripture God’s heart for refugees and foreigners and his call to us as his followers. Here is just one example from the mouth of Moses:

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:16-19, NIV

Consider your home and all the things that make you feel safe, at ease, and comfortable there. So many people in our world lack the comfort and security a home provides. Refugees live running from place to place, in tents meant to be temporary, or within fences and camps that fail to provide for even basic needs. Most live in fear and in a constant state of uncertainty.

• Spend a few minutes now praying for the refugees of the world.
• What must it be like to live in constant fear and without a home or place to return to? What must the hearts and minds of the refugees long for or look toward for hope?
• Pray for the individual bodies, hearts, minds, and souls of the men, women, and children—all loved so deeply by God—who have been displaced and seek refuge from war and persecution. Pray that God would show you what he’s inviting you to do to love the foreigners and refugees where you live.

May your Kingdom come, may your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.