Five ways you can pray for refugees
Today, more than 82 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes.
Many refugees leave their home country due to war, persecution or violence. These families and children have left their homes, their livelihoods and even their loved ones to escape conflict.
But very often their difficulties do not end once they cross the border.
Here are five ways you can pray for refugees all around the world.
1. Pray for families
Refugee families shoulder the double burden of mourning their old lives, and adapting to a new one. They are grieving the life, home, and possibly family, they have left behind.
Many families are separated during this journey. Some husbands stay behind, sending their wives and children ahead of them.
Once in a new land, these families must learn to navigate a new and unfamiliar place, oftentimes in a new country. Housing, food, and income are all needs that must be fulfilled.
Refugees are supported by aid organisations, but nothing can wipe away the fear and sense of loss their journey has brought.
Lord we pray that you bring hope to these families. Comfort these parents and children, as they begin to make a new life in an unfamiliar place. Fill them with hope for a brighter and better future. We pray that you would provide opportunities for refugees, that they would find the support and aid they need to find safety and peace.
2. Pray for host communities
Refugees leave one community, and must begin anew in a different one.
The refugee crisis impacts not just refugees, but the communities that welcome them. Host communities have the difficult task of finding resources and support to care for everyone.
These generous communities are providing help and compassion for newcomers, while caring for their own.
Gracious Father, thank you for the communities that have opened their hearts and their doors to those in need. We pray that these communities would have compassion for refugees and for the difficulties they have endured. We pray that you would provide for these communities. Let there be sufficient resources so that everyone will have what they need to stay warm, fed and safe.
3. Pray for comfort for children
Many of these refugees are children. Torn away from their homes, and family members, refugee children find their entire world has changed around them.
Many do not understand why they had to leave their homes at all. Having endured an arduous journey to find a new home, refugee children struggle to find a sense of security in a new place.
Jesus, we know of your love for children. We pray that you comfort refugee children as only you can. Give them peace, comfort, and joy. Surround them with adults and guardians who will protect them and care for them. Comfort them in the midst of their insecurity.
4. Pray for agencies
Agencies like World Vision are on the ground helping refugees with food, shelter, and hygiene kits.
But the refugee crisis continues to grow, and the conflict in Ukraine only adds to the number of families and children that have become refugees. Volunteers and staff must make difficult decisions to delegate supplies, staff and finances.
Lord we pray for agencies working with refugees around the globe. We ask that you would be with the leaders, staff and volunteers as they work to care for refugees. Give them wisdom as they make decisions, and perseverance as they continue the work on the ground.
5. Pray for world leaders
As the refugee crisis continues, world leaders are faced with difficult decisions. The choices these leaders make will have a profound impact on their nations, and on refugees who have fled to foreign lands.
God of wisdom, we pray that you would guide leaders at every level-local, regional, and national. Be with them, and grant them wisdom in their decision-making process. Give them perseverance and humility to make sound decisions that will guide countries toward stability and peace.
For more than 70 years, we have been supporting the needs of refugees. World Vision teams are working to support refugees from Ukraine, South Sudan, Myanmar and Syria as well as other locations around the globe.
Help our teams to protect and provide children whose lives have been changed in an instant.