World Prayers for July 19-25: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico

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Guatemalan children. Photo by Joseph Molieri / Bread for the World

This is a weekly prayer series that appears each Friday on the Bread Blog.

One aspect of Bread for the World’s Bread Rising campaign is prayer. The campaign is asking Bread members to pray more, act more, and give more. In this blog series, we will provide a prayer for a different group of countries each week and their efforts to end hunger.

This prayer series will follow the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, a list compiled by the World Council of Churches that enables Christians around the world to journey in prayer through every region of the world, affirming our solidarity with Christians all over the world, brothers and sisters living in diverse situations, experiencing their challenges and sharing their gifts.

We will especially be lifting up in prayer the challenges related to hunger and poverty that the people of each week’s countries face. In prayer, God’s story and our own story connect—and we and the world are transformed. In a prayer common to all of us—the Lord’s Prayer/the Our Father—we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This line from this prayer can also be a prayer for the end of hunger.

We invite you to join Bread in our prayers for the world’s countries to end hunger. And we encourage you to share with us your prayers for the featured countries of the week or for the end of hunger in general.

For the week of July 19-25: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico

Loving God, we lift up to you the nations of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. We know that you care and see each person in these nations, and we ask for your hand to guide and protect each individual.

Right now, we pray for those who have been oppressed and abused by the military and government officials. We ask for divine protection over them and for justice to be done on their behalf.  We also earnestly pray that there would be an end to the government corruption prevalent in these nations and that a just system would be established to uphold the rights of the people regardless of their social and economic status.  In addition, we pray that those who are struggling financially would be able to find a sufficient source of income through the creation of new jobs or in the meantime, receive help from  government support and foreign aid. We also pray for supernatural conviction in the hearts of the political leaders to make righteous and just decisions that would benefit all and ask that you would raise up leaders in the government and other influential places in these nations that would fight for justice on behalf of those who cannot fight for themselves. We pray that through the changes that happen higher up in the hierarchy, there would be evident changes on the community level.

In addition, we pray for the orphan, fatherless, and the widow – those who are the most susceptible to poverty and food insecurity – in these countries. We pray that you would protect them and send help  their way. In addition, we pray that you would meet them wherever they are with your love, peace, and provision. You dearly care for each person and desire that everyone would experience your love and care. We ask that you would reveal yourself as their provider and protector.

Lastly, we pray for the body of Christ in this region and around the world. We thank you that you’ve given us the grace and power to be your hands and feet to the world, and we ask that as we pour out, you would pour in with greater provision so that we can pour out in greater measure to more people. In addition, we pray that as we know and experience your love, this love would compel us into action to love our fellow brothers and sisters in these countries as ourselves whether that be through our prayers, giving, or advocacy. 

We thank you that nothing is too difficult for you, and we pray these things, In Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.

Percentage of the population of these countries living below the national poverty line (2014 figures):

Belize: N/A
Guatemala: 53.7
Honduras: 64.5
Mexico: 52.3

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators as found in the new 2015 Hunger Report.

Prayer is a central part of Bread for the World’s work. To learn more about how you can get involved with prayer at Bread, please go here.

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