Friday, September 24, 2010

Help Needed--Praying for Orphans

Orphan Sunday is coming up on November 7th. Churches around the US are preparing for this Sunday. One of the ways we are preparing is in prayer. Please join us in 40 days of prayer. Even if your chuch is not planning anything for Orphan Sunday please join us in praying for all of the churches that are. I am posting the prayer suggestions for the next 40 days, be prepared it is long. You can also find many resources at the Orphan Sunday website. orphansunday.org

40 Day Prayer Guide for Orphan Care
Begin praying September 28th. Thank you for being a part of this!!!

Day 1—Pray that the Lord would give you a personal sense of responsibility for the next 40 days(and beyond) for praying for orphans, your pastor, your church, and your community. Ask Him to break your heart for the orphans. Ask that He would help you see orphans with His eyes and His heart. Ask Him to use this 40 days of prayer to change you and your church.
Day 2—Pray for your Pastor to have guidance and provision as he seeks to follow the Lord’s commands to care for the orphans.
Day 3—Ask God that of the 2 billion Christians in the world, 7% would show hope to a single orphan, looking after the child in their distress. Ask the Lord to convict the church and the world that if we did this, there would effectively be no more orphans. Ask the Lord to show each of His followers that we can each do something.
Day 4—Ask the Lord to help your church congregation to feel His heart for the orphans as seen in Psalm 68:5: “A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. . . “
Day 5—Pray for the fatherless in your community. Ask the Lord to protect them and to care for them and to defend them and keep them safe,
Day 6—Ask the Lord to help your church family to live out Proverbs 31:8: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”
Day 7—Thank the Lord in advance for all that He is going to do to bring glory to His name in your church and community. Thank Him for the care He is going to provide for orphans through your church.
Day 8—Pray for the Lord to raise up workers for the harvest from your church and community. Ask Him to call Christians to go to the ‘fields of the fatherless’ to experience the joy of caring for orphans as we are commanded in Isaiah 1:16-17 “Give up your wicked ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows.”
Day 9—Pray that God would break the heart of your city’s pastors with the plight of orphans. Ask that he would convict them to lead their churches to pray, go, and love in Jesus’ name.
Day 10—Ask the Father to set the lonely in families. Pray specifically for families in your community who may be in the process of adopting an orphan. Ask for God’s provision for all of their needs: physical, emotional, and spiritual.
Day 11—Pray specifically for any orphans you may know by name. Pray for their health and safety. Pray for their shelter. Pray that they will be brought into loving families who will provide for their education.
Day 12—Pray that God, the Defender of the orphan, will rise up and secure justice for the oppressed.
Day 13—Ask the Lord to lead the lawmakers in every nation to protect and provide for orphans.
Day 14—Pray that your whole congregation will believe and be convicted by Proverbs 22:9: “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” Ask for the Lord’s blessings on those who share their food with orphans.
Day 15—Pray for yourself as a church member. Ask the Lord to lead you on, that you might walk in obedience. Ask God to show you how to encourage your church family or youth to care for the needs of orphans.
Day 16—Pray that because of God’s mercy, He will provide caregivers and counselors for children who have been abused.
Day 17—Ask for forgiveness for Christians around the world who forget the orphans and forget to heed 1 John 3:17: “ If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”
Day 18—Ask the Lord to raise up respite care providers to support and give relief to the caregivers caring for orphans who are waiting to have families adopt them.
Day 19—Pray for your Pastor. Ask God to provide him with resources, encouragement, courage, and a strong prayer team to support him as he seeks to live out James 1:27: “Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
Day 20—Pray that the Christians in your village, town, city, and country would believe and live out the truth of Proverbs 14:31: “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Day 21—Pray for government leaders in your country. Ask the Lord to burden their hearts for the orphans. Ask that they would feel compelled to protect and provide for orphans.
Day 22—Pray for families who have members living with HIV and AIDS. Pray for the children orphaned by this disease. Ask God to provide treatment, care, and support through the church.
Day 23—Ask the Lord to strengthen the faith and resolve of Christians working in orphan ministries.
Day 24—Pray for any church staff members and leaders. Ask for the Lord’s hand of blessing on their lives. Lift up the health and safety of them and their families. Ask also that the Lord would break their hearts for the orphans in you community.
Day 25—Pray for God’s provision for your church’s orphan care ministry. Ask Him to provide people and prayers and money and food and supplies to give the orphans all the care they need.
Day 26—Pray for children who are not yet orphans but may only have one parent who may be sick or dying. Pray for the health and safety of their parent. Pray for God’s provision. Pray for protection for the children in these households.
Day 27—Ask God to care for child-headed households. Pray that the Lord will provide for their needs. Pray that an adult would come alongside them and adopt them. Ask the Lord to protect them from abuse.
Day 28—Pray for families who are taking care of their grandchildren or nieces or nephews in addition to their own children. Ask the Lord to bless them for their sacrifice and to provide enough food, clothes, education, and shelter for all of their children.
Day 29—Pray for mothers or fathers who might be having trouble caring for their children and feel they need to give them up or abandon them. Ask God to help them find support. Ask the Lord to meet their needs and give them the resources to be able to take care of their children.
Day 30—Ask God to protect children affected by war and violent conflicts. Pray that the Lord will protect their vulnerable hearts and keep them safe. Pray that a church will reach out to them.
Day 31—Pray for families in countries all over the world who have room in their homes and hearts for a fatherless child. Ask that the Lord would speak to them even now, leading them to consider adoption or foster care.
Day 32—Pray that every member of your church would remember and acknowledge and praise the Lord that before the world was made, He loved us and chose us, and that His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ and that this gave Him great pleasure.(Ephesians 1:3-5)
Day 33—Ask the Lord to help your church be an example of the Lord’s love for orphans as written in Psalm 10:17-18: “The helpless put their trust in You. You are the defender of orphans Lord, You know the hopes of the helpless. Surely You will listen to their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so people can no longer terrify them.”
Day 34—Pray for youself and the other prayer team members. Ask the Lord for strength. Ask Him to help you no grow weary in battling for the orphans on you knees.
Day 35—Ask the Lord to encourage and strengthen your church. Caring for orphans and changing attitudes and beliefs and actions is togh work and the enemy is bound to attack. Ask for protection for your pastor, his family, their health, and their ministry. Ask for God’s hand of blessing on their lives.
Day 36—Ask the Lord to release and speed any care supplies to refugee camps where many orphans live and need even the most basic necessities. Ask Him to cut through any governmental regulations or corrupt leaders to miraculously get the supplies delivered to where they are needed most.
Day 37—Pray for families who are in the adoption process. Pray that God will provide the funds and help them with all the necessary details.
Day 38—Pray for street children. These children live under bushes and in dumps and sewage pipes. They may eat meals out of trash cans. Many people walk by them without seeing them or view them as pests. Ask God to open the churches’ eyes to help them see the orphans all around them. Ask the Lord to provide food and shelter for the street children.
Day 39—Pray for the health of orphans around the world. Ask the Lord to provide medications and treatment for the simple things that are unnecessarily killing children like unclean drinking water, malaria, dysentery, AIDS, and malnutrition.
Day 40—Thank the Lord for the past 40 days of prayer for orphans. Ask Him to bring more prayer warriors into the battle. Ask Him to help you to continue praying diligently. Ask Him to continue to give you His love for the orphans. Ask Him to continue to challenge the hearts of your congregation that “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will reward him for what he has

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