Our Voices Raised

Our Voices Raised Praying Together to End Extreme Poverty

WHY PRAYER? Prayer is a vital part in our efforts to see change in the world. Through prayer, we place our faith in the unfailing character of God, who is full of justice and grace.

Prayer brings our hearts closer to the heart of God, especially as it concerns the impoverished. God’s grace inspires us to strive for justice when we pray.

Prayer sustains us as we seek to overcome the injustice of the world that is sometimes so big it paralyzes us.

Prayer empowers us to be agents of social change.

Prayer reminds us that real people, beloved children of God, are behind every staggering statistic.

As Christians, we must engage in prayer for our local communities and people around the world in our pursuit of justice. We ought to lift up our leaders in prayer, as well as the goals they have set out to achieve. In doing so we are working to bring our hearts closer to God and His understanding of justice and peace.

As we continue to understand the importance of prayer, we should also teach ourselves to pray with our actions. Let us not only quietly pray in our rooms for a change in the world, but loudly pray with our daily lives as we actively seek out that change.

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE As we seek to mobilize the church to end extreme poverty we’ve chosen three issues that dramatically impact our brothers and sisters around the world, and for which our voices are vital. They are corruption in extractive industries, protecting funding for lifesaving development programs, and climate change.

This guide will walk you through prayers for each of these key issues, but should be used as a launchpad for you to pray for justice in your own community. Take time to observe and reflect on what challenges your community faces and add your prayers to these!

Prayer is a quick way to mobilize your community for change, yet it has lasting and powerful impact. Consider: Gathering a group to pray on the National Day of Prayer (May 7th).

Committing to pray for one of these issues each Sunday in a given month with your church community.

Devoting a night to prayer at your small group and specifically pray over these justice issues.

Incorporating these prayers into your daily prayer routine.

Climate Care Creator God, we praise you for creating all things. We thank you for not only making it functional but beautiful with colors and construction that literally takes our breath away.

Give us hearts that break for the destruction your beautiful creation.

Give us eyes to see the destruction of your creation by our actions.

Give us ears to hear the cries of our impoverished brothers and sisters suffering from drought, flood, and famine due to climate change.

Give us voices to speak out for change and the will to see that change happen.

Please be with our leaders are they have to make courageous and contentious policy decisions about the environment.

Open the eyes of our leaders to see the value of creation care simply because you created this world and it was good.

Open the eyes of our leaders to see the value of creation care because the way we live our lives and the policies we implement impact our most marginalized brothers and sisters.

Remove greed, selfish ambition and desire, and pride from the halls of leadership as we all seek protect this amazing earth we’ve been given.

Amen.

SCRIPTURE: “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” - Genesis 2:15 “Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.” - Leviticus 25: 3-5

Corruption & Poverty God, we thank you for creating a world rich with enough resources for all. We praise you for creating a world where none need to go hungry, where there is more than enough for all to flourish. Thank you God, our provider.

We confess that not all flourish because of corruption.

Corruption in our hearts, in our politics, in our economics, and even in our churches.

We confess that our lives our often sustained by the oppression of others.

We confess that we often don’t know the hands that made our clothes, our phones, or our food.

We ask for forgiveness for when our behaviors and consumption perpetuate extreme poverty and the oppression of our brothers and sisters.

Please help us to see where our use of resources is holding up systems of corruption and poverty. Give us the will to see change.

Guide us and give us wisdom to use our voices in places and with people who have influence to challenge injustice. Multiply our actions in ways beyond our imagination.

Descend your Spirit upon the decision-makers both in the halls of leadership and within large corporations. May they put your beloved children over profit.

Open their eyes to the impact corruption is having upon those living in poverty.

Soften their hearts, remove greedy desires, and instill within them a will to end corruption that is harming the impoverished.

Amen.

SCRIPTURE: “Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: Instruction will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations.�

- Isaiah 5:4

Protecting Life-Saving Development Aid Thank you for creating us with a desire to see justice done.

It is from you that we have been given a love for people we do not know and cannot see.

Thank you for bold leadership that has led to thousands of lives being saved in the wake of crisis, disease, and hunger.

Please give us a boldness and and understanding of how we can impact the decisions our leaders make.

Help us to be a courageous voice protecting our most marginalized brothers and sisters.

Help us to be a voice for those affected by our nations decisions but who have no opportunity to speak to our leaders.

Open the ears and hearts of those within the halls of leadership as they seek the common good.

Foster a desire for cooperation and resolution to not come at the expense of the most impoverished around the world.

Help our leaders to create a budget that is morally sound and does not balance the budget on the backs of your most vulnerable children.

Amen.

SCRIPTURE: “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’.” - Luke 14:28-30

www.micahchallengeusa.org 1033 SW Yamhill St. Suite #102 Portland, OR 97205 Deepen your understanding of justice and prayer by checking out our book Live Justly-designed for small groups or individuals.

www.livejust.ly