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The World?

Yes, the whole world.

After all, the earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1 ESV)

Every month we are sharing one of the 52 handouts prepared by Operation World, which guide us in praying for major world-wide issues and for specific countries.** We’re sharing these to help us learn about the issues and peoples and to lift our prayers from our personal concerns to God’s concern for all of humanity.

As we use these guides, we need to depend on the Holy Spirit. He will show us how to pray and may guide us into specific ways to serve or contribute. May God’s kingdom come and His will be done here on earth as we Pray for the World!

Let us pray with confidence.

God desires that we come before him in prayer – he says: Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. (Psalm 2:8 ESV) We can Pray for the World with confidence because we know from Scripture where history is headed: There will be those from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9 ESV)

Let us pray with clean hands and a pure heart.

Communion with God in prayer is a joy and a privilege. But as it says in Psalm 24, we need to come with clean hands and a pure heart, lest our praying be little more than a game to impress each other. A desire to Pray for the World effectively can encourage us to maintain a close relationship with God and good attitudes towards others.

Let us pray God’s word.

When we base our prayers on Scripture, we can be confident that we prayed according to God’s will. Use verses and passages of Scripture to structure what you pray. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. (1 John 5:14 ESV)

Let us pray for God’s glory and honor.

When Jerusalem was in ruins, Daniel prayed. And his prayer expressed his desire to see God receive honor – the destruction reflected badly on God not just on his people. After the prophets of Baal saw no response to their pleading on Mount Carmel, it was Elijah‘s turn to pray. He prayed for God to be known and honored through a visible response to prayer. We can join with these giants of faith as we pray to Jesus may receive the glory due his name throughout the whole earth.

Let us pray together. Let us pray consistently.

Join with your family or friends to pray through the guide. Having a prayer partner helps us to be consistent in our prayers. Our intercessory prayers are part of the good works that God has prepared before hand for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10 ESV). As a kingdom of priests, we have a responsibility to pray for people who do not yet know enough to pray for themselves.

Contact Pastor Nate, Renee Sanford or Linda Lyke if you’d like to join us on zoom each Thursday morning at 7:00 to Pray for the World.

*** You can find the current month’s guide at https://theconnecting.church/worldprayer, as well as a link to subscribe to weekly prayer guides from the Lausanne Movement.