Prayer changes things. Sometimes it instigates clear divine intervention.
But prayer also changes things by moving us to be forces for God’s purposes. Which, when we think about it, is simply another form of ‘divine intervention’.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, God moved Christians such as William Wilberforce to move against the slave trade, lobbying British politicians for 18 years until the slave trade was finally abolished in 1807. (Although those who were already slaves across the British Empire were not freed until 1833.)
In 1885, God moved The Salvation Army to successfully campaign to lift the age of consent from 13 to 16. Roy Hattersley, in Blood and Fire, wrote that child prostitution was common in Victorian England: ‘Girls as young as nine or ten were “bought” from their parents and sold to brothels all over Britain and continental Europe.’
Around the world every year, The Salvation Army prayerfully considers the plight of trafficked people. Yes, we ask God to intervene. But our prayer also invites God to move us to get involved personally.
In this War Cry, we look at some of the great work being done in the UK to combat the crime of human trafficking. In our next edition, we’ll examine what’s happening in this part of the world.
God loves every person and does not want anyone to suffer in slavery. As you pray about that on Sunday 24 September, our annual Day of Prayer for Victims of Human Trafficking, be open to how God might want to move you to answer your own prayers.
Christina Tyson
Editor
Nehemiah 8:10 (New Living Translation)
… Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!
Nehemia 8:10
… kei te koa hoki ki a Ihowā he kaha mō koutou.