Prayer To Combat Human Trafficking

During national sporting events there is heightened demand for commercial sex, not only onsite at the event, but in casinos and places across the nation where high-stake betting is taking place.

• Pray that God shines a light into the dark places where buyers congregate, and where traffickers will be selling the innocence of others for monetary gain.

Practical action: Pray for law enforcement stings and online patrols to be able to see into the dark places as they seek to intercept buyers at the point of sale to bring both predators and pimps to justice.

• Pray for the protection of vulnerable young people from the lies and deceptions of traffickers who recruit and groom them specifically for this event. Pray for all victims of trafficking in our nation during this time, wherever they are being bought and sold, that God will make a way for them to escape.

Practical action: Find out how you can help trained advocates that are doing outreach to identify and support victims helping to bring them to safety and restoration.

• Ask God to help you be aware of words and actions that will honor and support those who have been victimized through sexual exploitation. Pray with words that magnify God’s heart towards those who are trapped in the commercial sex industry.

Practical action: Be aware of labels and tags that identify a person by what has happened to them. Change your language to recognize a “person who is being prostituted” as opposed to labeling them as “a prostitute.”

• Ask for boldness to influence and encourage friends and family to avoid destructive and harmful behavior such as participating in pornography, off-color joking with the guys, lewd online gaming, or contributing to cultural tolerance for commercialization and exploitation of men, women, boys, and girls.

Practical action: Change the channel during the Super Bowl when an oversexualized commercial or half-time show objectifies women in order to entertain or sell products.

• As part of an integrated response to this heinous evil, ask for God’s help to understand that buyers and traffickers are broken people too, in need of justice with mercy. Ask for patience as you extend His mercy covering to those in darkness, and for His help so that you can trust that He will judge rightly.

Practical action: Resist the temptation to rant and rave in the face of blatant evil that desires to destroy those who are hurting others. Instead, humbly trust that God is able to change their hearts and darkened souls to come into the light of a relationship with Him.

“Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.” 
Isaiah 49:24-25 NIV