“The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.”
– Lamentations 4:4
This is a picture of the suffering that people were experiencing as Lamentations was being written. And specifically, we’ve prayed in light of this before, specifically children who are begging for food and infants who are starving of thirst. And there’s a lot we could talk about here, again in light of how we’ve prayed before, just the effects of war and oppression and injustice and sinfulness and rebellion against God on children in ways that we see around the world today.
But it’s actually where I want to lead us to pray. What are we doing to make the love and the goodness and the mercy of God that we read about and prayed according to in Lamentations 3, what are we doing to make his love known to children in need like this today around the world? I can’t read past Lamentations 4:4 without pausing and praying for children who are begging for food today, starving of thirst today.
Lamentations 4:4 Leads Us to Pray for Provision for Children
God, we pray for your provision for children who are like this today in places like Yemen, amidst war in Ukraine. God, in so many other places around the world, where due to a variety of circumstances, children are suffering and starving, God, we pray for your mercy to made known among them for your provision for them. And God, we pray that you would help us to live and give for their sake.
I praise you for ministries around the world that are helping children in poverty. And think of Compassion, I think of World Vision, I think of so many others from so many different angles who are doing so many different things. God we pray that you would bless the work of people’s hands who are reaching out to children who are starving and in need. We pray that you would help us to come alongside churches in those places, churches where children are starving, our brothers and sisters, our family.
Build Up Churches in Areas of Suffering
God, we pray that you would help us to build up churches in situations like this, to strengthen our brothers and sisters, that they might live, that their children might live. God, we pray for people who are experiencing all this and don’t have the gospel. We pray as we think about Yemen, for example, God, we pray for the spread of the gospel in Yemen and for the provision of physical needs in Yemen. God help us as your people, with the resources you’ve given to us, to be a reflection of your love and your mercy and justice and kindness on behalf of children who are begging for food today. Please show us what this means for each of our lives and our families and our churches. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
