The Importance of Intercession prayers For Human Rights Issues
Hey guys, in today's blog, I'd like to discuss a very specific aspect of being a Christian, which is your prayer life, and I'd like to discuss prayer from the viewpoint of not just praying for yourself, but also praying for others. The aim of this blog post is to explain what intercession prayers are and why I believe it is important to pray for people all over the world whose human rights are constantly violated. As unrepresentative and unfair as the UK can be at times, there are many countries around the world that have it worse than we do.
This is something I always mention in my blog posts, but my blogs aren't specifically for Christians. I am a Christian, so everything I do is an expression of God's glory, and I want to honour God in everything I do, including the discussion of human rights issues. I believe that this is also an opportunity for non-Christians to learn more about Christianity and how we deal with injustice. Justipedia is a safe space for people to educate themselves, to be righteously angry, and to constantly advocate for people, particularly young people, to go out and be a change in their community.
So, intercession prayers? What exactly are they? When we talk about intercession prayers, we mean praying on behalf of others, or interceding on their behalf. Prayer is personal, and prayer is essentially communicating with God, so we tend to pray for ourselves and our personal needs and desires most of the time, but it's important to know that we should also pray for others, and that there is power in the spirit realm when we decide to shift our prayers from our personal desires to our compassion for people.
Let’s look at 1 Timothy 2:1-4. 1
Timothy was written by Paul. He was an apostle during his time, and in this passage Apostle Paul encourages us as Christians to pray for all people around the world, people in authority & people in high positions so that our lives can be peaceful and quiet.
So, what does this have to do with human rights? We must understand that, while each country has its own issues, and I can certainly say that the UK government and society have their own issues, the position we are in today is something for which we should be grateful when compared to how other countries are living. There are many countries today where people have no freedom to do whatever they want within their rights, which is not fair because that is never how God intended. As a result, it is vital that we stand in the gap for those people and pray for them so that their lives can be peaceful and quiet.
There have been 130 mass shootings in America as of late March 2023.
In India, they don’t believe in women having a right to education so it’s actually the boys who go out to school and get an education.
People in China are being persecuted for practising their faith and being open about it.
All of these issues and countries violate some type of human rights, and it is not right that people have the right to an education. People have the right to live. People should also be able to express themselves and practise their religion freely.
You are deserving of human rights regardless of who you are, where you come from, the environment you grew up in, your sexuality, or your age, whether you are 10 or 65. You are a human being created by God in His image, and as such, you are entitled to certain rights. You deserve to walk down the street without fear of being killed, you deserve to live in a country where you can get a free education, and you deserve to be passionate and bold about the things you want to change in your community without fear of being judged.
I want to challenge you today to try and shift your focus of yourself for a minute and onto humanity
3 reasons why you should take time out of your week, even if it’s 5-10 mins a week to pray and stand in the gap for the world concerning human rights issues:
Things change - the power of prayer is real. When you shift your focus to praying for others and the world regularly, you will notice that things in the world begin to change, there is less bad news and more peace, and people start taking accountability for their actions and be more apologetic.
It changes you - when you pray for others and for the world, you will notice that you have more compassion for people, and your perspective on certain things in life will change because you understand why people do certain things. As a result, your heart is more aligned with God, because God is both love and compassion.
You will be blessed - God doesn’t look for people who are perfect, He looks for people who are willing to try and people who care when God sees your heart and sees that you demonstrated your compassion and love for people through your actions, He will bless you. Sometime if you are wanting something, you don’t even need to say it because God already knows what it is and He will bless you in that area because of your life other people, your love for other people it’s a reflection of the character of God
Related sources:
“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
I Timothy 2:1-4 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/1ti.2.1-4.NKJV
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
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