World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers for North Korea

What can be gathered for North Korea is sparse but steady: nuclear testing and the tension it brings, prisoners and political detention, drought, food shortage, and illness without treatment. The prayers hold a people whose ordinary lives are rarely visible, and ask for talks with the South.

Nothing Can Separate Us: Prayers Before the US Election, for Calais and Italy’s Earthquake (December 28, 2016)

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”  Romans 8:38-39, NLT Recognizing the effects of fear and anxiety in our lives, we […]

Bad Deeds Have Consequences: Prayers After the Aleppo Aid Convoy Strike and Police Shootings (September 22, 2016)

“The Bible says little about the temperature of hell nor the furniture of heaven”. This quote from the great German theologian Reinhold Niebuhr fits in with the story of the rich man and Lazarus where we are made aware of the dangers of being mean with our money and uncharitable to others. This is echoed […]

A Glimpse of All Your Works: Prayers After North Korea’s Nuclear Test and Typhoon Meranti (September 15, 2016)

O how wondrous is the foreknowledge of the divine heart that knew every creature in advance. For when God looked upon the human face that he had formed, he glimpsed all his works, in that same human form, all summed up. O how wondrous is the inspiration that has thus animated the human being.                         […]

The Lord Looks at the Heart: A Prayer for Yazidi Women, Hungry North Koreans, and Our Blindness (August 4, 2016)

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7, NIV Loving God, we pray today for the same instruction that you gave to Samuel: […]

Free Me from the Shackles of My Privilege: A Prayer from Somalia to Haiti (March 11, 2016)

  Alpha and Omega God, I realize again and again that I am a person of privilege.  I am confronted with the fact that I have so much, so many opportunities.  I am convicted by my daily “concerns;” which restaurant will I go to for dinner, will my latest on-line shopping purchases be delivered on […]

He Came Down That We May Have Peace: An Epiphany Prayer for Persecuted Christians (January 7, 2016)

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;…” “I have summoned you by name; you are mine. Do not be afraid, for I am with you;” Isaiah 43: 1 & 5 “Why did he come?  He came down that we may have love, … peace, … joy.”  Cameroon (Africa) Carol As we celebrate the Baptism […]

You Understand: Prayers for Korean Family Reunions, a School Attack in Sweden, and Typhoon Koppu (October 22, 2015)

‘God is not aloof; God is not a spectator.’  Eugene Victor “Gene” Debs, American union leader.  Creator God, we would pray for the whole world, but it’s too big and we are overwhelmed.   We understand that you can see all and know all that is before we even think to talk to you about it.  […]

Out of the Darkness We Cry to You: Prayers for Palmyra, Lahore, and Western Wildfires (August 27, 2015)

(Thanks to the Evangelical Lutheran Church for some of these prayer petitions.) Out of the darkness we cry to you, O God. Enable us to find in Christ the faith to trust in your care even in the midst of pain. Assure us that we do not walk alone through the valley of the shadow, […]

Well May the World Go: A Prayer of Anguish After the Charleston Church Shooting (June 18, 2015)

Well may the world go, The world go, the world go, Well may the world go, When I’m far away. — Pete Seeger (c. 1973) For months now, this has been my wake-up song, a conscious choice to spend my first moments of each day letting go of all I can’t control, of all I cannot […]