Oh God, our God, our Help in ages past, our Hope for years to come…
We praise You for this evening. We find hope in the survivors’ stories of resilience. We are challenged as You have enlightened us to the issues and tragedies of human trafficking. Thank you for Kristy Childs, Terrell Bishop, Renee Battle-Brooks, Ivona Bernard, and the many participants tonight who have made decisions not to be silent about human trafficking. Continue to renew their strength and multiple their efforts.
Father, tonight we pray for the vulnerable…
May we continue to educate and keep a watchful eye for all. May they always be sheltered in the safety of your loving arms. May they be spared the trauma of the actions of others that leave scars that carve into their very souls. Please come alongside all who are at risk, those who have no one to trust or offer safe shelter. All-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful God, be their protector so they do not fall into the evil schemes of man. And may You provide solutions for those who out of desperation are vulnerable to traffickers.
Father, we pray for the victims who may be in harm’s way even tonight…
Though bought for one’s pleasure and sold for another’s gain, though shamed, degraded and denied basic human rights before our eyes again and again, please show your sons and daughters new evidence of Your safe love and their value to You. Wipe their tears. Heal their shattered hearts, bind up their wounds, and grant them Your peace and hope so they may testify of Your deliverance. Take the painful burdens caused by evil and give them rest. May they know they are never alone when You are with them. Speed to their side now. Father, we plead for their freedom. You are a God of miracles.
Father, we pray for the traffickers…
We pray for those who steal and destroy the beauty You created. May You open their eyes and awaken in them an awareness of their acts of atrocity, fill them with conviction, create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within them so they will seek forgiveness and turn from their evil ways. Stop them, Lord. Intervene when hearts are too cold and they no longer see their offenses and greed or may lack a soul of compassion for humanity. Confound the wicked and destroy their plans. We acknowledge that only You can truly change a heart.
Father, we pray for this community and its leaders…
May our society’s eyes be opened. May hearts be softened. May awareness grow so that this community will no longer tolerate the demeaning behavior of the perpetrators and be stirred to action. Convict those who turn their backs. Strengthen the resolve of leaders in positions to offer protection and enforce justice. May this community take a united stand tonight and each day going forward on behalf of all exploited at the hands of others. This is a problem not just overseas but in this community in all races, ethnicities, and socio-economic classes. We pray for Your shield of protection to surround this community and ask You to heal this land.
Father, lastly, we pray for Your Church…
We confess we have preferred not to get too close. We have closed our eyes and turned away at times rather than to speak up for the helpless, vulnerable, imprisoned, and oppressed. But you have brought us together tonight to challenge us to be more like You.
Forgive your Church, Lord, and may You open our eyes wider so we never look away again. May we be an army to fight this uncomfortable fight in your name. As Michael K. Marsh said, may we be “emboldened … to speak …. your words of justice, human dignity, and freedom, not only with our lips but in our lives. Fill us with your holy anger at the many ways men, women, and children have become commodities for another’s profit.” Show us where to start to protect and defend, to liberate and rescue. May we restore dignity as we lavishly share love, hope, and healing in the name of the one true deliverer, Jesus Christ.
Give us the will, courage, and endurance. Enlarge our hearts of compassion to love one another as you have loved us, and may this be reflected in all we do and say. May our sensitivity to these injustices grow. May we become a community that others can trust and turn to for freedom. May we extend the healing ministry of Christ in this community.
Hear our prayer tonight, O Lord, and the cries of the hundreds of thousands, yea millions enslaved at the hands of the devil himself. Be swift with your help. And may cries of deliverance soon escape the lips of all your children. Until that day when You end injustice forever, we join together in this prayer as one voice and plead for the chains of the captives to be loosened. And we trust that Your love never fails.
We ask this in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
This prayer was inspired by a deepening understanding of human trafficking through the stories of victims and survivors, the messages of presenters this weekend, and by others who have shared their passion to effect change to end human trafficking and save lives.
–Diane Thurber
