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As Advent begins, let’s focus our prayers around the promises of God that were fulfilled in the coming of Jesus in that stable in Bethlehem. Firstly, Christmas gives us a powerful reminder that Jesus came to die for us as an expression of God’s justice. This week, let’s pray to a God who loves justice so much he was willing to die for us.

We’ve had worrying news of a spate of church burnings in Chile. Justice for the people affected has been slow in coming. Pray for the survivors and the congregations who have been through this terrible experience, and now need to find somewhere else to worship.

Please pray for justice for people who, like Nguyen Cong Chinh in Vietnam, are on trial because of their work defending religious freedom. Let’s pray this verse over them today: Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18-19

Today let’s pray for Tran Thi Hong, a Vietnamese human rights activist and wife of pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh. She has been harassed and her son arrested, due to her family’s work defending human rights. Please pray that God would secure justice for Tran Thi Hong and her family.

Churches continued to be the targets of demolition and confiscation across Cuba in 2016. In many cases the church is also the home of the church leader and their family, meaning there is much more at stake for these leaders. Please pray for church leaders whose churches and homes are at risk of being confiscated or demolished by the government: that God would protect them from this injustice.

In many countries we work in, religious minorities are arrested on trumped-up charges and then face trials which do not follow international fair trial principles. They can be held in terrible conditions, denied access to lawyers, or face discrimination in the legal process. Pray that all who are facing trial at the moment would be guaranteed a fair trial.

Eight years ago more than 50,000 people were forced to flee their homes, in the worst outbreak of anti-Christian violence in post-independence India. The survivors of the attacks in Kandhamal District, Odisha are still waiting for justice for the violence that drove them from their homes and led to the deaths of at least 90 people. Recently the Supreme Court of India ordered the state of Odisha to re-investigate 315 cases from this violence, so let’s give thanks for this and pray it leads to justice being done.

Father, today we pray for all those who are crying out for justice. Watch over them, we pray: assure them of your perfect justice and love, and work powerfully so that one day, no one will be denied justice because of what they believe. Amen.