Prayer Prompts in a Time of Protests and Riots

The protests and riots after the death of George Floyd are all over the news and social media feeds right now.

What should we as the Church be praying in such a time as this? I humbly suggest we pray the following prompts, and however else the Spirit leads you.

1. Pray for the end of injustice. These protests and riots started over the unjust death of a man under arrest. This is one death that highlights acts of racism and injustice that were not eliminated with the Emancipation Proclamation, Brown vs Board of Education, or the Civil Rights era. For peace to truly occur, we need justice. Justice isn't making sure wrong-doers are punished. Justice is relieving oppression.

2. Pray for peace. Pray for calm, self-control, and wisdom to prevail on all sides. Pray that neither the police or the protesters escalate the situation through their actions.

3. Pray for the voices of the oppressed to be heard. People are trying to share their stories of racism, fear, and hate they have received. They are sharing what normal things they were doing when someone called the cops on them.

4. Pray for people to think twice before calling the police on people of a different ethnicity than them.

5. Pray for people to reach out across racial divides and form friendships where we learn from each other.

6. Pray for those planning to loot or riot to be foiled quickly and calmly.

7. Pray for those who haven't experienced racial injustice to listen to, learn from, and support those who have.

8. Pray for this to be last unjust death that occurs.

9. Pray for true peace to be achieved. Not from silencing or stifling those who have been oppressed, but by repairing the brokenness in our country that allows such injustice to exist.