O God,
It must break your heart to see so many of your children so desperate to flee their homeland that they put their lives and the lives of their children at such risk.
It must break your heart to watch people wage war. It must break your heart to watch them wage war in ways that put innocent civilians, including children, in harm’s way. It must break your heart to see attacks target innocent civilians.
It breaks our hearts.
If it doesn’t, cause us to wonder why—and to repent.
Thank you for those organizations and nations that are doing something to shelter and even to accept refugees. Bless their efforts. Lead more countries, including ours, to do whatever they can to help.
Give the refugees a home. Show us how to make homes available to them.
Give the refugees peace. Show us how to make peace available to them.
And please, God, intervene in the hearts and lives of the people who are fighting the wars that are producing the refugees. Give them spirits and minds that want peace. Show them how to find ways to work for peace that do not involve killing people and destroying nations.
Bless the refugees. Show us how to bless them ourselves.
Amen.
The post originally appeared on Prayer 365.
Michael Ruffin is husband to Debra and father to Joshua (Michelle) and Sara (Benjamin). A graduate of Mercer University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he has previously served as a pastor and as a university professor. He lives on the Ruffin Family Farm in Yatesville, Georgia. You can visit and communicate with him at MichaelRuffin.com. He is the Uniform Series Curriculum Editor.
