Pray With Us to End Human Trafficking: A Guide

This week during Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we’re inviting you to pray with us to end this injustice. 

Below is a prayer guide to help direct your time of prayer. We recommend gathering your family, church small group, or group of friends to pray together, but you can also do it on your own. 

This prayer guide comes to you from Nikki Still, our spiritual director at Love Justice. It is divided into five categories, each with a different focus, scriptures to meditate on, prayer points, and reflections. 

To prepare for your prayer time, choose a comfortable, quiet space to set up with cushions, blankets, or chairs. Feel free to set the mood with candles, string lights, instrumental worship music, or printed scriptures. The goal is to create a space of peace and rest where participants can engage with God. Provide paper or ask people to bring notebooks to write down anything God says or shows them. 

Ready? Let’s pray!

1. Be still: the God of justice

Scripture to meditate on: “The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.” —Psalm 33:5

Reflection: God is perfectly just. His character and actions are rooted in righteousness. He sees every wrong, defends the weak, and promises to bring all things into account. Even now, He is at work exposing darkness and bringing freedom to the oppressed. One day, His justice will be fully revealed when Christ returns to judge the nations and establish His kingdom forever.

But God does not act alone. He calls His Church to partner with Him in justice. We are commanded to seek justice, defend the oppressed, and speak for the voiceless. And in Isaiah 58, God gives extraordinary promises to His people when they take this seriously: He promises light breaking forth, healing, guidance, strength, and restoration. When the Church acts justly, God not only transforms communities but also blesses His people with His presence and provision.

Prayer time:

• Open with a few deep breaths as you invite the Holy Spirit.
• Reflect on God’s heart for justice, either silently or aloud. 
• Ask Him: Where am I called to live this out? How can my family, friends, or church reflect your heart for justice? Write down or pray for anything He shows you.

2. Break our hearts: entering the pain of trafficking

Scripture to meditate on: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” —Psalm 34:18

Reflection: We cannot fight for justice with apathy. God calls His people to feel what He feels. Allowing our hearts to be broken by the reality of trafficking is part of aligning with His heart. When we lament the pain and cry out for the oppressed, we join in God’s grief and His determination to bring rescue and restoration. God loves every human more than we could possibly imagine. Allow your heart to be broken—that compassion and anger are what will compel you to do something about it. 

Prayer time:

• Ask God to break your heart for what breaks His. Ask Him to remove the defense mechanisms that you have set up to ignore or deny what’s happening. 
• Repent of the ways that you have turned away from those who are hurting, and ask God to renew in you a determination to fight for them with the strength He gives.
• Pause in silence to allow time for lament, grief, and tears if they come.
• Pray for every child, woman, and man trapped in similar situations today. 
• Pray that the Church will not turn away, but rise up in compassion and justice. 

Closing words of hope: Do not leave this place in despair. Remember, our God is a God of justice. He has promised to “loose the chains of injustice” (Isa. 58:6), and when we partner with Him, we are working with the most powerful force in the world.

There is so much to do to help those in need—in prayer, in action, in love. Carry this brokenness as fuel for hope: the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is at work today, rescuing, restoring, and bringing freedom.

3. Global perspective: praying for the nations and drivers of trafficking

Scripture to meditate on: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” —Ezekiel 36:26

Drivers of trafficking: poverty and unemployment, corruption, lust and sexual immorality, greed, and the breakdown of families. 

Reflection: At the root of trafficking is sin in the human heart. Human trafficking is not only a social issue; it is first a spiritual issue. Without Jesus, the human heart bends toward selfishness, greed, lust, and corruption. This is why trafficking continues across nations and cultures.

But Jesus is the hope of the world. When He invades hearts, families, and communities, He transforms desires. He replaces greed with generosity, lust with purity, corruption with integrity, and despair with hope. Through Him, broken families are restored, orphans are embraced, and the vulnerable find protection.

As Isaiah 58 promises, when God’s people act in His justice, we become “repairers of broken walls, restorers of streets with dwellings.” Jesus not only rescues individuals; He calls His Church to partner with Him in restoring society—to undo the works of sin by bringing His kingdom of righteousness and peace.

Prayer time:

• Pray for renewal—first in your own heart, then in your family, your community, and beyond.
• Pray over the drivers listed above, interceding for nations trapped in those cycles.
• Declare hope in Christ, proclaiming Jesus as the only lasting solution—that His Spirit would change desires and raise up His Church as repairers of broken ruins.

4. Praying for victims, traffickers, and demand

Scripture to meditate on: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me … to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” —Isaiah 61:1

Reflection: The greatest injustice is that image-bearers of God are treated as commodities. But God’s justice is greater: He rescues, He convicts, and He redeems.

Three groups are central to human trafficking: victims, who are trapped, deceived, or coerced; traffickers, who profit from their exploitation; and consumers, who create demand by purchasing sex or exploiting workers. Each group needs God’s intervention. 

Prayer time: 

• Pray for victims, who need rescue, healing, and restoration. 
• Pray for traffickers, who need conviction, repentance, and justice.
• Pray for consumers, who need freedom from lust, addiction, greed, and distorted desires.
• Thank God that His justice is greater than human evil.

5. Prayer for Love Justice

Scripture to meditate on: “For I the Lord love justice…” —Isaiah 61:8

Love Justice exists to raise the red flag when exploitation threatens, spotting signs of trafficking and intervening before it is too late. We believe every person is created in the image of God and deserves to live free.

Prayer time:

• Pray for expansion and access, asking God to open new doors.
• Pray for the right people to be drawn in to play a part in this work.
• Pray for the impact of the organization to continue to grow (100,000 lives intercepted and counting!).
• Pray for protection and flourishing for our teams, especially those on the front lines.
• Pray for the hope of the gospel to change lives as our monitors boldly share their faith. 
• Pray for provision to continue this work, that all needs would be met.
• Thank Him for all He has done and will continue to do in loving response to prayer. 

Closing prayer:

Lord, You are the God of Justice.
Your ways are perfect, and You see every wrong and every hidden thing.
Thank You that You love righteousness and justice,
and that one day You will bring full and final justice when Jesus returns.

Forgive me where I have been silent or indifferent.
Help me to walk humbly with You, to act justly, and to love mercy.
Teach me to speak up for the voiceless and to defend the weak.

Thank You for Your promise in Isaiah 58—that when we loose the chains of injustice,
our light will break forth like the dawn,
our healing will come quickly,
and You will guide us always.

Make me and make Your Church
like a well-watered garden,
a people of justice and mercy,
until the day when You wipe away every tear.

Amen.

Thank you for praying with us! We believe prayer is powerful and effective. If you’d like to continue partnering with us in prayer, please take a moment to sign up for prayer updates at the button below. 

*All data and statistics current at the date and time of publishing.