Holy Spirit, thank You for not sugarcoating the ugly parts of life as You instruct us through Your word. Keep us from using our emotions, our past history, and our own sin from trying to interpret it in wrong ways. Above all things, keep us from trying to excuse evil in the name of love, honor, and respect.
Heavenly Father, we lift up those among us who have had to suffer sexual abuse and assault at the hands of uncontrolled lust. We ask for healing in the deepest parts of our soul even when there are truly no words to express how we feel. When justice is inadequate, be our Defender and Vindicator.
Father God, we lift up men and boys to You from all over the world. We pray that they would walk in the identity of being Your image-bearers. Help them to look at women and girls as image-bearers who have been created by You as equals. Keep them from abusing their strength to defile Your daughters and use them as disposable commodities.
Holy Spirit, keep women from being deceived about abuse being an act of love. Give them a way out of the cruel situations that they are trapped in. Show them that they ought to be loved as Christ loved the Church and have Himself up for her. Bless the organizations that provide shelters for abused women with endless resources to do good.
Lord Jesus, we confess that the sexual sin of generations before us has affected us. We know that our own sin in this area will affect generations that come after us unless we change and yield our lives to You. Cleanse us completely from all sin as we surrender to You. We know that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the power of hell itself.
Help us, Lord, to see that while all sin has its consequences, there is something deeply damaging about sexual sin. Remind us that the idea that our sexual sin only affects us is a lie from the pit of hell. May we live in the freedom that comes from knowing that You died for all sin, past, present, and future, but keep us from persisting in it.
We pray for courage to expose the cancer of this sin to Your Light, so that it doesn’t destroy us. Keep us from being silent in the presence of someone else’s abuse. Help us to see that it makes us participants when we remain silent in the face of injustice. May we see our own rescue from sin in Dinah’s rescue after three days.
Father God, we come before You and ask for forgiveness for centuries of sexual abuse perpetrated by those who claimed to represent You. While all sexual sin is disastrous, there is a level of devastation and demonic activity here that is hard to ignore. Give us divine wisdom to know how to deal concisely and consistently with sexual deviance within the Church. Prevent the Church from paying her way out of this abominable crime. May we be offended instead by the things that offend You.
Father, Son, and Spirit, we cry out to You on behalf of rescued and enslaved victims of sexual and human trafficking everywhere. Provide supernatural ways of physical, emotional, and spiritual deliverance, especially where nefarious perpetrators outnumber rescuers. You are the God who makes ways through deep waters and causes streams to flow in the wilderness. Nothing is impossible for You. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?
