Prayer for the News:
“But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.”
Psalm 59:16-17
Rock of strength, fortress of mercy, refuge for the troubled, we come before You Lord, knowing that, through Your love and compassion, through Your devotion and faithful assurances You are our ever present help in times of trouble. It is You who does wondrous deeds, showing forth Your grace in the lives of Your people even when the times of challenge are upon them and the agony and anguish of this world.
And Lord, there is suffering and sorrow, there is pain and hardship in the lives of Your people. You know their names, You have seen their faces, You have heard their cries. For so long have they had to endure the worst that this world has had to offer, finding the darkness and iniquity of men ripping them from all that they know and all that they love. For three years have André Durant, Callie Scheepers, Johan Enslin and Hardus Greef been left to languish in the grimmest of estate, having nothing more than hope to cling to amidst their live as they’ve been held captive in Baghdad.
Lord we pray that You be their refuge and their defense, the force of mercy in their lives according to the promises You have made. Where their lives are help cheap, show them they are of worth, where misery abides in them bring Your faithful promises to dwell, and where captivity and bondage is all they seem to know any longer, guide them to the deeper miracles of the freedom and liberty that You bring. So them that even though the path before them is long and hard, wrought with challenges unlike anything they could have imagined, Your light and Your truth breaks through in the most significant of ways to guide Your people back home.
Show them that they might have courage and strength as Your perseverance guides them and sustains them through all of the days of their lives, through this captivity and the days of joy You have planned for them when this is finally all put to flight…
Then shall we praise Your name, singing of Your power all the day long…
In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.
A Prayer for all the Hostages:
“That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.”
Psalm 108:6
To You do we flee dear Lord that we may seek and implore Your grace that mercy shall abide with Your children and that Your blessed people shall be delivered from the hands of wickedness and iniquity, unrighteousness and captivity throughout this world. Hear the names of the hostages and the prisoners, those who are oppressed and persecuted throughout the world, and know the countless others, bought and sold into slavery, bound and tied to imprisonment, crushed and destroyed by repression those ranks of men and women, children and families who we don’t have names for, the vast unknown throughout the world who are only known by those who they love and have been forced to leave behind.
Save them by Your hand that the hand of cruelty shall not be upon them. Show them the light of Your love that it might cut through the darkness that now surrounds them and let Your mercy shine through in the most significant of ways. Give them hope to endure their struggles and strength to preserve through their ordeal. Give them courage to push forward, and the blessings of Your assurances that they shall know that You have not abandoned them. Then, in Your time, in Your way, restore them to their freedom.
Show those who take prisoners and hostages, those who make captives and slaves of their fellow man that Your love does not abide in their unrighteousness and that Your grace does not dwell amidst their cruelty. Bring them to understanding that they may see the error of their unholy ways, and that they may come to a sincere sense of repentance according to Your path and Your sense of divine justice. Show them that they may abandon their path of darkness no longer to inflict themselves on the lives of others in the cruel fashion in which they have ripped them away from their families and loved ones, their homes and their joy. Then shall they come to understand that their ways are not Your ways and their will abandons Your will and they shall become agents of peace and love rather than chaos and hatred.
For all who are held, all who are taken from their peace and their joy we pray dear Lord, that You may bring them to the liberty that abides in Your Spirit to dwell forever in the joy of Your blessed freedom.
In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.
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