Please join the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, CBF-partner Bread for the World, Caritas International, the Catholic Church and other faith groups in prayer to end world hunger. Participate in this ‘wave of prayer’ at noon (local time) on Tuesday, December 10. Read more about this effort to end hunger here.

By Suzii Paynter

Dearest God,

You made all creation hungry. Like all your other creatures – puppies, kittens, colts, calves – we came into this world knowing hunger and waiting to be filled. Every day we repeat this ritual of need. Every day we are hungry. We pray for a moment of clarity that links us in our hunger to all peoples and creatures of the earth.

Lord, you are the God who wants us to have the gift of food. Your Holy Word places gardens, tables and feasts among your people for generations – even in the desert and at the moments of deepest anguish, there is the Passover meal. There is no wilderness or doorway to death that takes us away from your bread. We pray to be a feeding people – to be known for nourishment among all the hungry in every circumstance.

In this season, we thank you for the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, a town whose name means “house of bread.” He too, was born hungry; was fed and loved and put to sleep in a feeding trough. We see him break bread and create feasts in his daily ministry and in his parables. We hear his voice to the disciples “Give them bread,” and we know these words are a command to us as well.

We are plagued by many hungers, Lord. Many genuine, but some of greed. We confess that we see our own hunger, even our hungers of excess, but are blind to the simple hunger of the fragile and innocent. Our capacity to heal is a doorway for your spirit. We pray to be awake to this gift.

Father God, We are full of wonder for the strange feast of your great provision that enables us to feed others. It is no miracle to feed the world today. It is a matter of our will to BE LIKE CHRIST.. we offer you our willingness to be partners with a kingdom assignment from Jesus .

In the name of Christ,

AMEN

Suzii Paynter is executive coordinator of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Learn more about Paynter and CBF here.

Donations to support CBF’s Offering for Global Missions, which supports field personnel making a difference in combating hunger, can be made online here.