Today is the International World Day of Prayer. It is celebrated on the first Friday in March by Christians around the world in more than 170 countries. Through this celebration, those who participate pray for each other across the globe, especially lifting up those most in need.

What a beautiful concept!

Friends of Dial Hope, I invite all of you to join me in this day of prayer. Let us remember that we share a deep bond with as many as two billion other people on this planet. We live at a time of great global conflict and desperation in need.

Prayer is powerful — not because it bends God to our will, but because it bends our hearts toward God and toward one another. To pray is to refuse indifference. It is to stand alongside those who suffer. It is to entrust this wounded world to the mercy of God, believing that no cry goes unheard.

So today, let us pray with hope. Pray with humility. Pray with love. And trust that the Spirit is at work — across borders and beyond what we can see — drawing the whole world closer to the heart of God.

Let us pray: Gracious God of every nation and people, we lift before you this world you love. Strengthen the weary, protect the vulnerable, and guide the leaders of nations in your ways of justice and peace. Bind us together as one body in Christ, and let your Spirit move through our prayers to bring hope where there is despair and light where there is darkness. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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