Six Mighty Prayers for Justice
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We hear the cries in our streets and on our screens: Justice! Give us justice! Deliver justice!
It’s often a rallying cry, encouraging others to clamor for the same in the face of dreadful or truly unfair persecution or loss of life. Sometimes it’s used to incite governmental leaders and others to pass needed laws or enforce already existing regulations, while other times it seems like a plea for the world to sit up and take notice of a grievous wrong that has occurred.
Biblical justice is rooted in the perfect and always-good essence of the Lord God Almighty. We know that God is good and true, holy and righteous. He is just, the epitome of justice and all that is love and truth and goodness. Justice is often synonymous with righteousness. Those who are just and righteous are walking in God’s will and way, in alignment with the Lord and obeying his commands, not only in their actions but in their hearts. It’s a relational description of those who are in proper connection with God, who himself personifies righteousness and justice.
When we call for justice, we’re really calling for righteousness – for the world or the situation to be set in godly order in accordance with the Lord and his perfect ways.
We can and should pray for justice in every moment and every way, whether we are directly petitioning God for justice or simply begging that the world turn back from the wrong path and back to God’s way. God’s way, we know, is the way of his son, Jesus — “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
Praying for justice is a good thing, for it enables us to focus our souls on the way of the Lord and urge others to do the same.
Every aspect of our lives is addressed in God’s word, the Holy Bible, from family strife and marital issues to lawsuits, oppression, murder, and immigration. God calls us to righteousness in all of this.
Here, then, are six prayers for justice:
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1. A Prayer for Justice in Our Nation
Oh Lord,
You know that we are a woefully imperfect people. Thousands of years ago, you told your people, the Israelites, that your ideal was for them to be in perfect relationship with you. You set prophets over them, leading and guiding them in spiritual righteousness so they could walk well with you at their helm. But the people desired a king like all the other nations had (1 Samuel 8:4). So you told them what to expect in return — oppression at the hands of a worldly ruler in exchange for sometimes-peace and battles won.
Today, we look around at the world and our nation and wonder how we could have gone so astray. Help us, mighty Lord! Help us return to you and your ways. Hep us repent for the wrongdoings we and our brothers and sisters in this land have done, intentionally and unintentionally. Open our eyes to the plight of others, and help us walk in mercy and justice.
Indeed, you tell us that we are “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micha 6:8).
Forgive us of all wrongs and help us collectively turn to you, Father God. Bless our leaders and our peacemakers and our citizens. Bless our workers, our young, and our elderly. Bless us all as we strive to do what is right in your eyes.
See me here and now as I do my best to speak on behalf of the people in my nation in spite of their wrongs and my own.
We submit to you, Lord.
Amen.
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2. A Prayer for Justice Internationally
Father God,
Our world can be filled with strife and evil, with enemies at our heels and nations fighting nations. Bloodshed and oppression darken lives and tears families apart. Bitter words and political orchestrations loom, even during times we believe all to be peaceful.
Sometimes we, your children, forget that we are all human beings, all beloved and created by you. We think you have favorites, and perhaps we convince ourselves you love some of us and not others. But this is not the truth. You love every single one of us. Indeed, you sent your son, Jesus, so that the whole world might have a path to your kingdom, now and forever. You did this while we were all still sinners, exhibiting your love, mercy, and compassion (John 3:16-17).
We also know all human beings are created in the image of God and beloved by him (Genesis 1:27). The Bible tells us you know us perfectly and intimately, that you formed our inward parts and knitted us together in our mother's womb (Psalm 139:13).
Help us all to hold tight to the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 8:38-39: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
You see us all, Lord, and know us completely. Help us all to turn to you, to walk in your will and your way, and to love others in your name. Help us to share your Gospel to every corner of the earth so that all may see and know you.
In your holy name I pray,
Amen.
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3. A Prayer for Racial Reconciliation
Holy Lord,
We your people can be so broken. We are all souls, all created by you and in your image (Genesis 1:27). Yet we create false boundaries and acknowledge shallow differences based on the skin and bones that cover our frames — frames created differently by you, yet all equally beautiful. We focus on earthly divisions, such as language or skin color, nationality or culture. Yet we know you see the souls beneath any earthly differences we create.
Help us to see each other as genuine brothers and sisters all beloved by you. Help us to love each other in spite and even because of our differences. Help us to care for each other truly and completely, following Jesus’s commandment to love our neighbor as ourself (Matthew 22:37-39).
When we witness injustice based on racial or other superficial human differences, help us speak up in love for those oppressed and do what is right in your eyes. Help us witness your love in the world, both in the ways we treat others and in how we advocate for just and righteous treatment for all people of all races.
Help us see others as you see us: your children, period.
We love you, Lord, and we are so grateful you provide us with a pathway to eternity.
Amen.
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4. A Prayer for Victims of Injustice
Precious Lord,
My heart breaks at the injustice that occurs every day. Whether crimes or persecution or other injustice, I know it happens all around me, even when I cannot see it. Behind closed doors, injustice happens. In the streets, injustice happens. Among those who are your people, still, injustice happens.
Injustice and unrighteousness is the very opposite of you, Lord God. You embody justice and righteousness, goodness and mercy. You are truth and peace.
Help me to see even hidden or silent victims of injustice and help them in your name. Help me not be one who perpetrates that injustice, even if this occurs in ignorance.
Comfort and protect these victims of injustice, and soften the hearts of those who hurt them, driving out the evil within.
In you, we have perfect wholeness and unity. In you, we are one, connected through the power of your Holy Spirit.
I pray that your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Now and always.
Amen.
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5. A Prayer for Unity
Heavenly Father,
You are my everything. You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who is and was and always will be (Revelation 1:8). You created all things, from the earth to all the people and animals who walk, swim, or crawl upon it. While we cannot fully grasp the mysteries of your holy trinity, we accept and strive to understand that you are the triune God — Father, Son, and Spirit, three in one.
As is proclaimed in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
This is our battle cry, the essence of who we are — we belong to you, Lord, and we submit to you.
Because of your great and vast unity, help us also be united, both with you and with each other. Help all people and all of creation unite in your love and your goodness, blossoming in the light that gives us eternal light, now and always.
Enable us to heed the words of James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God,” and the words of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, acknowledging that our body “…is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Among the most powerful acknowledgments of this comes in Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
When we die to self, we surrender to you. We say “yes” to the unity that is you.
Help us all to say yes to your united, perfect love.
Amen.
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6. A Prayer for Our Enemies
Oh, Lord,
One of the more difficult-to-follow commandments comes in Matthew 5, when Jesus tells us not only to love those we love, our brothers and our friends, but to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (v. 44).
You know this is hard for us, yet so good for us.
We know that prayer is a good thing, for it enables us to turn our will from ourselves and bend it to yours in genuine surrender. When we pray to you, we are in dialogue with you, connecting with you. When this happens, our hearts begin to soften. Our self-absorption fades as we release our agendas and worries and self-oriented concerns to instead embrace you and your will and way. We begin to see and love others as Jesus does.
Relinquishing self is difficult, but with you, we can do this. We can love our enemies, forgive our enemies, make peace with our enemies, and see our enemies as you do: just like us.
So Lord, I bend the entirety of my heart, mind, and soul to you now: Bless my enemies. Bless those who persecute me and even hate me. Help draw them into your love and forgive them. They know not what they do, truly. Help me to love and care for them just as I do myself, honoring you foremost. To you be the glory, now and forever.
Amen.
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Other Bible Verses about Justice
In addition to those woven through the prayers above, here are a few other important Bible verses about justice:
Ecclesiastes 3:17 - “I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.”
Proverbs 21:15 - “When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.”
Amos 5:24 - “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Psalm 37:27-29 - “Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever. For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.”
Isaiah 30:18-19 - “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.”
Isaiah 61:8 - “For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.”
Matthew 5:6 - “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
James 1:27 - “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
Remember: When we embrace, model, and seek justice — just as when we embrace, model, and seek goodness, holiness, and love — we are honoring the Lord God, who himself is justice and righteousness. Help us remember that justice is what God wants, for we are all a part of him and all belong to him. Injustice to one is certainly injustice to all.
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