Holiday season: A time to pray for prisoners

Last minute Christmas shopping worries?

Wondering if you got the right gift for the right person?

Wondering if everyone will get along at the holiday family gathering?

Our Christmas week suggestion suggestion:  Give the gift of prayer...prayer for hurting, lonely, needy children of God huddling behind bars.

Right now, there’s a prisoner feeling lonely at Christmas time, because family and friends abandoned him/her years ago.  Fewer than 15% of Michigan inmates even receive visits!

Right now, there’s a prisoner wishing he could see his children, but his wife has obtained a court-order forbidding visits.

Right now, there’s a prisoner contemplating suicide because he feels friendless, or because he has been raped, or because he is being victimized by gang-bangers.

Right now, a prisoner is struggling with pain because of improper, inappropriate, or just plain lack of any medical care.

Right now, a mentally ill prisoner is so drugged that he/she has no idea whether Christmas is coming or has already gone by.

Right now, there’s a prisoner so worried about a Parole Board visiting coming up in 2015 that holiday joy is elusive.

Right now, a prisoner cannot locate family members, and is wondering whether they will even have a merry Christmas.

Right now, a prisoner who cannot read well, cannot write well, cannot spell well, is worried about how to fill out an application form for commutation.

Right now, a gifted musician wishes that he/she could participate in the annual Christmas Eve service at a home church, but will settle for accompanying prisoners in worship.

 Right now, a senior citizen behind bars feels all alone.  Family and friends have long since passed away.

I hope you get the picture.  This is just the beginning of a very long list.

It’s our obligation to let prisoners know they are not forgotten by God, or by his people.

Let us pray.


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