Prayer Squares: A Prayer for Life Below Water (SDG #14)

Our Prayer Squares are a freely-printable resource to help you pray for women and girls, and the world, using the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as an engaging framework.

Download the Sustainable Development Goal Prayer Squares
Read more of the Salvationist Prayers for Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations has set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as 'an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.'

We believe that prayer is the biggest action a Christian can begin with. Will you join us in an urgent call for prayer, as we intercede for women and girls through each of the Sustainable Development Goals?

Prayer for Sustainable Development | Whakakāhore Hāhoretanga
Goal #14: Life below water | Find out more
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources

• Women are not typically included in decision-making processes of coastal and marine resources, limiting their access. None of the UN targets address gender equality in how marine resources relate to the livelihoods of women and men, including the role such resources can play in food security, employment and poverty reduction.

'Our gracious Heavenly Father, thank you,

For the waters that cover this earth
For the open seas that produce our kai moana, protein and sustenance
For the deep oceans that house millions of living creatures identified and undiscovered

For the rain that cleanses our airspace
For the H2O that nourishes our tinana and our whenua
For the lakes, pools, rivers, and oceans that create a space for us to float in and bask in your glorious creation, ngā mihi nui e Pā.

In this time, we ask now that you would continue to make a way for employment that does not negatively impact these waters. May we see more and more people speak into these spaces as kaitiaki by praying for restoration and replenishment. Lord, we know that you are the living water and you lead us to streams of still waters. So, please continue to do so now and help us to learn how to live below the water and appreciate it better.

We commit this goal to you now, in Jesus' powerful and loving name, Āmene.'

- Roxette Ogotau, The Salvation Army Northern Division