World Refugee Day 2022
A Prayer Response to Zephaniah 3:17 (Taken from World Refugee Day 2022 - Service Resources)
Lord you are with us. In each and every step of staying or fleeing. In each step of traveling across borders and setting up a new life in a new country and a new culture, you are with us. As our hearts break and tears fall, you are with us. In our longing and our praying, our fighting and our sighing, you are with us.
You are mighty to save. Lord as we walk new paths and as we walk alongside those who are walking new paths, Lord save us. We have seen you working things together for good in our new relationships and in the beauty that has come out of a truly tragic situation, but You working all things together for good does not inhibit our prayer for salvation. Salvation of lives, salvation of land, salvation in every sense of the word. Lord you are mighty to save. Continue to show up in mighty ways.
You take great delight in us. Lord we confess in this time it can be hard to find your delight. When things feel heavy and worries abound, nevertheless the truth prevails. You take great delight in us. You are endeared to the hearts of your children who have fled to new lands. Lord you have great things to say about caring for those in other lands for your heart is for them and not against them, and so Lord we celebrate your delight in the lives and hearts and minds of your children even as they learn to live and work and play in new places.
Lord, you quiet us with your love. We need this now Lord. As we continue to navigate the unknown and the changes that have occurred and may yet to come, Lord quiet us with your love. Instill in us your deep peace - the peace that passes all understanding for Lord it is when you quiet us that we are best able to receive and then to respond. Lord in all the ways we do not know the specifics to ask for, we ask for you to quiet hearts, minds, fears, worries, and sorrows with your love. Lord we know that this quieting is not a displacement or a distraction but rather your quieting involves healing and we pray for that.
You rejoice over us with song. Songs have long been way for us to connect to your heart. Hallelujah, thank you Father that you are rejoicing over us with song. May your song continue to invite, heal, encourage, protect, and bring a sense of thriving over all refugees in all lands this day and every day moving onward.
Through the character and by the name of Jesus, we pray.
Amen.
Sarah Putman, Coordinator of the Work with/for Refugees from Ukraine in Romania