These prayers for mercy are for ourselves, our families and extended families, our friends and neighbours, our work colleagues and school friends, our village, parish, town and country and for the whole world. Prayer provides us all with a protection against temptations and evil and leaves us open to the grace of God. This little saying sums up a heart at peace and how that one heart can touch the hearts of others:

"If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world."   (Confucius)

Prayer isn’t just about you, it’s about others. Behind every great spiritual awakening, the kind that radically changes people and shakes up communities, there’s an unseen, unstoppable force known as ‘intercessors’. Many of the victories we celebrate in the open were first won in the secret place of prayer by these intercessors! It’s their specialised ministry. And God could be calling you to be one of them! 

It’s a two-fold calling; first you minister to the Lord through worship, then you minister to the lost through witness. Even though your feeble limbs can’t carry you beyond your own front door, through prayer you can limit satan’s movements and defeat his best-laid strategies. ‘How?’ you ask. 

By calling the forces of heaven into any situation, anywhere, anytime, for anybody. No wonder the enemy will do ‘whatever it takes’ to keep you from praying! Check out these two Scriptures: 

a) ‘Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession’ (Psalm 2:8). It’s time to move beyond your ‘bless me’ prayers, and begin to touch nations! What you prayerfully declare on earth (as long as it lines up with His Word), God will authorise in heaven. 

b) ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field’ (Matthew 9:37-38 NIV). It works like this: your prayers move God. God moves people. People move nations. Nations are changed. The whole thing begins with one praying person – today let that person be you.

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all -- this was attested at the right time." 

"Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters. The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill."

I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, or his wrath can flare up in a moment.
 Blessed are all who take refuge in him." 

"You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us. O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You."