We need to pray for the refugee crisis. That seems like such an obvious statement. But when praying for something of such magnitude, you can feel lost knowing where to begin.
First we need to know what we’re praying about. Can you guess how many forcibly displaced persons there are in the world today? How many people have been forced from their homes, whether they are outside or inside the borders of their countries of origin? (Put a number in your head and then scroll down…)
The answer is 65 million, roughly the population of the UK. Of those 65 M forcibly displaced persons, one third are classified as refugees (people forced outside their country of origin by conflict and persecution) and the size of that group is 22 M, roughly the population of greater New York City.
Half of all refugees are children, one quarter are Syrian, and many have been refugees for decades.
Houston is America’s #1 resettlement city, so there’s always work to be done to help refugees. I have an inclination toward action. When I think of caring for refugees, I’m ready to get to work. I’ll set up an apartment, bring over food, enroll children in public school, teach them how to ride a bike, write an article, call my Congressmen, or sign a letter.
But I also need to pray.
We, the people of God, need to drop to our knees and pray for the refugee crisis because this problem is so big, we can’t do it with action alone. We need to call upon the supernatural intervention of God Almighty to establish justice in this world.
We need to pray for a lessening of conflict in the world.
We need to pray for all the children who have been orphaned, for boys who have lost their mothers and forced into child soldiering, for girls who were forced into child marriage or sex trafficking.
We need to pray for all the bereaved women who have lost their husbands.
We need to pray for the babies born in refugee camps.
In this country we need to pray for compassionate government policies that are vigilant about national security while still being generous towards the vulnerable. We need to pray that every refugee who arrives in our country will have someone in his life to help him assimilate, so he can become a productive citizen. We need to pray that refugees will be able to find healing from their trauma.
We need to pray for the refugee crisis. Would you stop right now and say a prayer?
Abba's House 