The Invitation, December 8, 2022

In Genesis God created mankind to “Abad” and “Shamar” all of creation. These terms in Hebrew can be interpreted in many ways but when used together mean to serve and take great care over. It is also the role that the priests are given in the Old Testament for the nation of Israel, to represent God to those they are looking after but also represent those they are looking after to God. How are we representing God to all of creation and how are we representing all of creation to God? Please take a moment to pray for creation right now as it is part of our God-given responsibility  and please also pray with us on December 8, our prayer day for YWAM’s prayer initiative called The Invitation.

1. Pray for restoration of biodiversity in areas where there has been great loss. Rich biodiversity is vital for the natural God-created systems on earth to function well. Without this variety of life, areas that would otherwise have been very productive become barren deserts. This in turn leads to the suffering of the people who rely on these areas for their livelihood and food. Please pray for the communities that have been negatively impacted by the loss of biodiversity.
2. Pray for the countries being impacted by plastic waste. While plastic has been an amazing innovation, it also takes hundreds to thousands of years to degrade and can end up in our food and water. According to a report from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) in Feb 2022,plastic consumption has quadrupled over the last 30 years. All around the world plastic is being burned, releasing harmful gasses, blocking drains and causing floods or being washed into the oceans via riverways, causing harm to fish and other aquatic life that people rely on for food. Pray for continued innovative ways for us to step away from plastic, especially single-use plastic. Please also pray for the funding to scale up these pioneering biodegradable methods.
3. Pray for those in the world that are experiencing unusual weather extremes. We can see this in Nigeria’s extreme flooding, Europe’s low rainfall, fires and floods, East Africa’s two-year drought and India and Pakistan’s very long heat wave this year – plus many other regions. These people need relief and rebuilding. Please pray for YWAM’s ongoing pioneering efforts to provide aid. Please also pray for ways to reduce the levels of climate pollution that continue to make these things worse. In addition, please pray for more God-centered solutions to provide nutritious food for all people.

Take Action

1. Create a pollinator-friendly area in your location to benefit the local pollinating insect populations. This can be planting pots of native wildflowers or allowing an area of grass to grow long and not mow it through your growing season to give the insects a rich feeding area.
2. Look at changing your light bulbs to LED bulbs if you have not already. They consume much less power, both saving money and reducing the amount of excess gasses contributing to climate pollution.
3. Part of our challenge when we think of creation care is to find God-centered solutions. Farming God’s way is a great example developed by an African farmer. Read more about this example at https://www.farming-gods-way.org/overview.htm

Join the Invitation

Sign up for prayer emails and find translations in many languages at ywam.org/theinvitation. Please contact us at prayer@ywam.org to let us know how you prayed, to recommend a prayer topic, or to request an advance copy of the prayer guide.