Prayer: Chatting With God Like a Best Friend by Wycliffe Bible Translatorsਨਮੂਨਾ

Praying for the World

Do you know John 3:16? It’s often one of the first verses most people memorize, and if you don’t yet know it, take some time to memorize it now! It says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV).

Many people stop there, but verse 17 is an important one to know and memorize too! It says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (NIV).

It’s amazing to think that God wants everyone in the whole world to know about Him and believe in Jesus. That includes you, your family, your neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store and your teacher at school; He loves everyone!

But there are millions of people around the world who don’t know who Jesus is because they don’t have the Bible in the language that they normally use — a language that they think in, dream in and pray in.

There are thousands of languages that are spoken or signed around the world today, and many of those still need a Bible translation to start. That’s a lot of people waiting to learn about Jesus, know God’s love and understand that Jesus died on the cross for their sins.

One of the most important things you can do to help people learn about Jesus through Bible translation is to pray for them:

• You can ask God to help people who are working to translate the Bible.
• You can pray that people would be interested in Jesus, that they’d learn to love Him and ask Him to be their Savior.
• You can pray that people all around the world would be a part of making Bible translation happen, because every person deserves to know about Jesus in their own language!

No matter how old you are, you can pray for people all around the world to understand how much God loves them. You can pray that the Bible will be translated into all the languages still waiting so that people can meet Jesus and understand John 3:16-17 (and the rest of the Bible too!).

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus told the people who love and follow Him to go and help people of all nations love and follow Him too!

Think and Pray:

• What country or region of the world are you most interested in? Why?
• A fun way to pray for the world is to choose a different country or region that you want to pray for specifically. Do some research, learn more about the area and pray for people there to understand God’s love in their language!

We hope this plan helped you want to chat with God through prayer! Explore kids and family activities to learn even more about God's love for all people in all languages, and how Bible translation is bringing His love and hope to communities around the world.

For over 80 years, Wycliffe Bible Translators has been connecting people to what God is doing around the world through His Church to bring His life-transforming Word to every man, woman and child.