Freedom 21 - Day 4

Today is Day 4 of a twenty-one day initiative to end human trafficking in the United States and Mexico.  You can download the Prayer Guide through this link: Prayer Guide.

Today we are asking the Lord to deal with fatherlessness.

Personal Repentance

Father God, I ask forgiveness for any way that I have neglected children by putting other pursuits and interests before them and by failing to disciple and protect them. I ask forgiveness for turning a blind eye to those fatherless children in my neighborhood and church who You have called me to come alongside.

Corporate Repentance

We stand in the gap for fathers in our two nations and ask forgiveness for those who have been emotionally or physically absent from their children. O Lord, teach us to do what is right, to seek justice, relieve the oppressed, and correct and reprove the ruthless. Forgive us for not defending the fatherless, and fighting for the rights of the widow (Isaiah 1:17).

Intercession

• Lord, we recognize that those without the love of an earthly father are more vulnerable to being snatched up into sex trafficking. We ask You to “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; do justice for the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked (Psalm 82:3, 4).”
• Today we ask You to prompt and to equip the men in Your Church to step in and become father figures and mentors to those with absentee or disengaged fathers.
• We pray also for the healing of strained and broken relationships between children and their fathers, that old wounds affecting current healthy relationships would be healed.
• Lord, we recognize that those without fathers often have no blueprint for becoming a good parent themselves. We pray for healing and restoration of those without fathers, so the cycle of fatherlessness is broken, and the children in our two nations would be protected and loved rather than be exploited through evils such as sex trafficking.