An incredible bunch of passionate women from the Tearfund community have shared beautiful prayers with us in the lead up to this International Women’s Day.
Read their prayers below as they give thanks for progress made and lament the injustice, poverty and inequality women still face.
Heavenly Father,
Thank you that you created women and men equal. Thank you that our value is because you made us in your image and call us your children.
Lord, we grieve the brokenness of this world. Where women and men aren't always treated with the dignity and value you place upon them.
We pray especially for women in these unjust circumstances. Please have mercy and comfort them. We pray they would feel sustained by you and your steadfast love.
Lord, please use us to show your love. Please help us to challenge and change our social cultures where people aren't being treated with dignity. Not for our glory but the praise of your name.
Amen
Lauren is an Associate Board Member of the Tearfund Board. She is passionate about growing God's kingdom and seeing his people act because they are shaped by what he values.
I pray and uphold those women who are especially marginalised and excluded because of their disability or mental health problems.
I pray for more understanding of the issues around mental ill health and more compassion towards those who suffer in our own communities and in communities in which our partners work.
I give thanks for the work of Tearfund’s partners – Centre for Mental Health and Counselling in Nepal, Emmanuel Hospital Association in India and others who are working with women who have disabilities and/or mental health problems.
I give thanks for their incredible work in helping communities listen and act and change to be welcoming and inclusive.
Helen works as part of Tearfund’s International Programs Team in Effectiveness. For the past few years she has been journeying with TEAR’s partners who are working with people, families and communities around mental illness.
God, you are creator and sustainer of a wonderful and expansive universe, and the creator of women and of men all fashioned in your own image, all with beauty, dignity, and the capacity to thrive in life.
We approach International Women’s Day as both a day of celebration but also of lament. We celebrate when we do see and experience women and girls living their lives to the full. But our hearts are heavy as we see the poverty and violence impacting women daily in our communities, nation and across the world, and at the underpinning social and political structures.
We pray and act with yearning, and with hope and knowledge that you are at work - that we will see all women free to thrive.
Marj Quinn is a Melbourne Tearfund supporter, former Board Member and Fieldworker
What I'm praying for this International Women's Day...
Sisterhoods woven by unconditional love,
grounded in unshakeable Truth,
held up by pillars of authenticity and vulnerability.
Sisters who look for the best in the other,
always trusting and protecting,
regardless of appearance, religion, status, race...
Women and girls across the globe
who speak words of life to one another,
erasing comparison and competition
with mutual edification.
I'm praying for a global army of women who draw strength and courage from one another, to celebrate shared victories and run towards a common goal,
together,
as one.
Joyce is a NSW Tearfund Ambassador and a firm believer that God designed us as relational beings so that we would empower and spur each other on through life's struggles. This begins with each one of us intentionally loving the women in our life as Christ does!
Thank you Heavenly Father that we are never alone in you. Thank you we are your daughters in faith, redeemed by the saving grace of Jesus and comforted by the Holy Spirit whatever our circumstances. It is a joy to be yours and to know that nothing, neither pain, suffering, loss, injustice, betrayal, fires or floods, can separate us from your love and mercy.
Thank you Father for the faithful believers who have inspired our relationship with you. Thank you for the Esthers, Ruths and Deborahs who have gathered us to you as a hen gathers her chicks, blessing us with the wisdom of your Word and nurturing us in loving Christian community.
Thank you Father for all the men of faith we know who have humbly provided, protected and treasured us and our children down through the generations. Thank you for peace in our homes, for laughter and friendship.
Please empower us to be strong women of faith serving others where you have placed us. May we help to heal the broken-hearted by being women of harmony and kindness in this troubled world. May we be as fearless as the Lion of Judah and as compassionate as the Lamb of God, for your Name’s sake
Amen
Susan is a Tearfund supporter and volunteer and heads up our WA TEAR Committee.
Merciful Father,
We thank you that we are made in your image, and that through the work of Jesus Christ, we can confidently call you Abba Father and rest in wonderful assurance.
We cry out for our sisters who are hurt and stricken by the brokenness of this world, we ask that you extend your hand of mercy and justice upon them.
We pray for equality and freedom for the marginalised and vulnerable. We yearn for the kingdom that is to come - when all things are made right and all tears wiped away, where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.
We pray for your kingdom to come, your will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen
Sharon is a Tearfund ambassador in NSW and is an encouraged participant of God's work on campus to engage more students in understanding his heart for justice.
My prayer for women is a prayer for our families.
May we be families who love our little girls as they grow into women.
May we be families who encourage our little girls to be courageous. To fall and rise. To collect scratches and knocks to their knees as they fight giants in the backyard, save grandparents from dragons in the park and lead us through trails in the mountains.
May we be families who encourage our little girls to be brave and share with them the truth that it takes courage to be strong; it takes courage to be vulnerable. May we encourage our girls, young ladies and women to both give and receive strength; give and receive vulnerability.
May we be families who invite our women to the table - not simply to set it but to sit at it - with uncles, brothers and cousins as they discuss economics, investments and financial planning.
May we be a society which ceases to tell our women that they are less. For it is tiring to be told that we are less - that we must continue to strive for equality – in this country and in many others. May we simply start being a society which is better – which offers freedom, joy and equal opportunity for all. May this change begin within our families. May we be families who bring hope and a brighter future to all women – to those across the world and those we know and love at home.
Ruth is Tearfund's Supporter Development Lead
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