Prayer for the Nations: A Guide

The globe was sitting between the dinner plates. It was a small globe, the kind you can pick up at a thrift store for three dollars, with a scratch across the Pacific Ocean and the Soviet Union still labeled in faded red letters. The Novak family had placed it there on a Tuesday evening in October because their pastor had said something on Sunday that stuck: “If your family doesn’t know what to pray for, spin a globe.”

So they spun the globe.

The youngest, a five-year-old named Clara, reached across her plate of chicken nuggets and put her finger on it. It landed on Bangladesh. She pressed her fingertip against the green patch between India and Myanmar and looked up.

“What’s that?”

Her father pulled out his phone. He typed “Bangladesh” into a search bar and read three facts aloud: 166 million people. The official language is Bengali. Less than one percent of the population identifies as Christian.

Clara’s older brother, who was nine, asked, “How many is 166 million?”

“More than every person in California, Texas, and Florida combined,” their mother said.

Then they prayed. Clara folded her hands over her chicken nuggets. Her brother closed his eyes. Their father asked God to send workers to Bangladesh, to open doors for the gospel among the Bengali people, and to give courage to the believers already there.

It took four minutes. It was the most important four minutes of their week.

If your family is exploring how to teach kids about world missions, prayer is where it begins. Not curriculum, not craft projects, not documentaries. Prayer. Everything else grows out of this soil.

The Globe on the Table

The Novak family did not have a missions strategy. They had a globe. That was enough.

A globe on the dinner table does something no lecture can do: it makes the world physical. A child can touch Brazil. A child can trace the coastline of East Africa with a fingernail. A child can spin the sphere and watch the continents blur into one another and then slow, slow, slow, until a finger lands on a place they have never heard of.

That moment, the finger on the globe, is the beginning of intercession.

Most families who pray together pray for things close to home. And they should. Pray for Grandma’s surgery. Pray for the math test. Pray for the neighbor who lost his job. These prayers are good and real and necessary. But if a family only prays for what it can see from its front porch, it will develop a theology of prayer that is too small for the God it worships.

God is not a neighborhood God. He is the God of 17,000 people groups spread across 195 countries, speaking 7,000 languages, and he has purposes for every single one of them. When we pray only for our own concerns, we are using what John Piper has called a “domestic intercom” when God has given us a “wartime walkie-talkie.” Prayer is not a device for making our lives more comfortable. It is a weapon for advancing the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth.

A globe on the dinner table is a small corrective. It says: there is a world out there, and God cares about all of it, and so should we.

Why Pray for the Nations?

The short answer: because God told us to.

The longer answer requires a look at the whole arc of Scripture, from Abraham to Revelation, and what it reveals about the heart of God. But before we open the Bible, consider this: prayer is not preparation for the work. Prayer is the work.

Mark Dever has written that the gathered church’s most important activity is prayer, not because it prepares us to do something more important afterward, but because prayer itself is the doing. When a family prays for the nations, they are not warming up for mission. They are on mission. The six-year-old with her eyes closed and her hands folded over a plate of chicken nuggets, asking God to help people in Bangladesh hear about Jesus, is doing the work of the Great Commission in that moment.

This matters because families often feel paralyzed by the scale of global need. They cannot move to Bangladesh. They cannot fund a Bible translation project. They cannot learn Bengali. And so they do nothing, because the gap between where they are and where the need is feels unbridgeable.

But they can pray. And prayer bridges the gap. Not metaphorically. Actually. The prayers of a family in Ohio reach the throne of the God who rules Bangladesh. There is no distance in prayer. When you pray for the nations, you are as close to the unreached as the missionary who lives among them, because you are both speaking to the same God, and he hears both of you with equal attention.

What the Bible Says About Praying for All Peoples

Scripture does not treat prayer for the nations as optional. It commands it.

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-4, ESV)

Paul’s instruction is sweeping. Pray for all people. Not some. Not the ones who look like you or speak your language. All. And the reason is theological: God desires all people to be saved. Our prayers for the nations are not wishful thinking. They are participation in the expressed desire of God himself.

The Psalms carry the same vision. Psalm 67, sometimes called the Missions Psalm, lays it out in seven verses:

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.” (Psalm 67:1-2, ESV)

Notice the logic. The psalmist asks God for blessing, but not so that Israel can enjoy the blessing for its own sake. The blessing has a purpose: “that your way may be known on earth.” God blesses his people so that through them, all nations will know him. When we pray for the nations, we are praying in the current of God’s own intention.

Jesus himself taught his disciples to pray with the nations in view:

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10, ESV)

“On earth” is not a small phrase. It is not “in my household” or “in my church” or “in my country.” It is on earth. The whole earth. Every nation, every tongue, every people. When a family prays “Your kingdom come,” they are asking God to establish his rule in places where it is not yet acknowledged: among the Shaikh of Bangladesh, the Uyghur of China, the Somali of East Africa, the Berber of North Africa.

And then there is the vision that ties it all together:

“And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” (Revelation 5:8, ESV)

The prayers of the saints are collected. They are not lost, not wasted, not scattered into silence. They fill golden bowls before the throne. Every prayer your family has ever prayed for the nations is in those bowls. Every whispered request over a dinner plate, every bedtime petition for a people group whose name your child could barely pronounce, is incense before the Lamb who purchased people “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

Your prayers are not small. They are not futile. They are golden bowls of incense held before the throne of the King.

How to Start a Family Prayer Rhythm

You do not need a program. You need a starting point and a rhythm.

The starting point is one country or one people group. Just one. If you have a globe, spin it. If you have a map, close your eyes and point. If you prefer structure, go to Joshua Project (joshuaproject.net) and click “Unreached People of the Day.” Write down the name. That is your family’s focus for the week.

The rhythm is the scaffolding that holds the prayer in place. Without rhythm, prayer for the nations becomes a one-time event, something you do on Missions Sunday and then forget. With rhythm, it becomes woven into the fabric of your family’s daily life, as natural as eating dinner or reading before bed.

Here is a simple weekly rhythm that families can start this week:

Monday: Learn. Spend five minutes reading about your chosen country or people group. Where do they live? What language do they speak? What is their primary religion? Do they have the Bible in their heart language? Write three facts on an index card and put it on the fridge or the dinner table.

Tuesday: Pray at dinner. Before the meal, read the three facts from the index card. Then one family member prays for that people group by name. Keep it short. Sixty seconds is enough.

Wednesday: Look up a missionary. Search for organizations working in that country or among that people group. The International Mission Board, Frontiers, OM, and Wycliffe Bible Translators all have online directories. Find one name or one team working in the area. Pray for them by name if possible.

Thursday: Pray for specific needs. By now your family knows enough to pray with specificity. Pray for Bible translators working on the language. Pray for local believers who may face persecution. Pray for open doors. Pray that the Lord of the harvest would send workers (Matthew 9:37-38).

Friday: Give thanks. Thank God for what he is doing among the nations. Thank him that his Word is being translated into more languages every year. Thank him for the courage of believers in hard places. Thank him that he hears the prayers of your family.

Saturday and Sunday: Rest and reflect. Talk about what you learned this week. Ask your kids what surprised them. Ask what they want to pray for next week. On Sunday, if your church has a missions moment or a prayer time, your family will already have something on their hearts.

This rhythm takes less than ten minutes a day. Over the course of a year, your family will have prayed for fifty-two different countries or people groups. Over five years, two hundred and sixty. Over a childhood, a thousand. That is a lifetime of intercession built four minutes at a time.

Five Simple Steps for Weekly Prayer

If the daily rhythm feels like too much to start with, begin with a weekly practice. Here are five steps you can do in a single sitting, perhaps on a Sunday afternoon or a weeknight after dinner.

Step 1: Spin the globe (or pick a country). Let one of your kids choose. The randomness is part of the joy. A child who lands on Papua New Guinea will want to know why the country has 800 languages. A child who lands on North Korea will ask hard questions. Both are good.

Step 2: Learn three facts. Use Joshua Project, Operation World (operationworld.org), or a simple internet search. Find the population, the primary religion, and one surprising or memorable detail. Write them down where everyone can see.

Step 3: Find it on the map. This is geography and intercession combined. Let your child put a sticker or a pin on the location. Over time, the map fills with markers, a visible record of your family’s prayers.

Step 4: Pray together. Each family member prays one sentence. The five-year-old might say, “God, please help the people in Papua New Guinea know about you.” The twelve-year-old might say, “God, please give the Bible translators there strength and wisdom.” The parent might pray for open doors and for the safety of local believers. Together, those sentences cover the ground.

Step 5: Write it down. Keep a prayer journal or a simple notebook. Date each entry. Write the name of the country and what you prayed for. Over months, the journal becomes a record of faithfulness, a book of your family’s prayers for the world.

What to Pray For

When you sit down to pray for the nations, it helps to have categories in mind. Here are six things you can always pray for, no matter which country or people group you are focusing on:

Pray for Bible translators. There are still over 1,000 languages without a single verse of Scripture. Wycliffe Bible Translators and partner organizations are working to change that, but the task is enormous. Pray for the translators, often local believers themselves, who spend years putting God’s Word into languages that have never had it.

Pray for local believers. In many unreached areas, there are a handful of Christians living under immense pressure. They may face rejection from their families, loss of employment, or outright persecution. Pray for their courage, their faithfulness, and their witness.

Pray for open doors. Some countries are closed to missionaries. Some regions are dangerous. Some governments actively suppress the gospel. Pray that God would open doors that no one can shut (Revelation 3:8). Pray for visas to be granted, for relationships to form, for opportunities to share the good news.

Pray for missionaries. Pray for the workers who have left their homes, their families, and their comforts to live among unreached people groups. Pray for their health, their marriages, their children, their language learning, and their perseverance. Pray that they would not grow weary.

Pray for the children. In every people group, there are children who have never heard the name of Jesus. Pray that the gospel would reach them while they are young. Pray for their safety, their education, and their spiritual hunger.

Pray for God’s glory. This is the ultimate aim of all prayer for the nations. We do not pray primarily so that people’s lives will improve, though we hope they will. We pray so that God’s name will be known and worshipped among every people on earth. As Piper has said, missions exists because worship doesn’t. Where God is not worshipped, the church is sent. And before the church is sent, the church prays.

For families who want to go deeper into praying for specific unreached people groups, our guide walks through age-appropriate ideas for children from preschool through high school. And our printable missions prayer cards for kids give your family a tangible tool to hold in their hands as they pray.

Tools That Help

You do not need expensive resources to pray for the nations. But a few tools can make the practice richer and more sustainable:

A globe or world map. This is the most important tool. It makes the world physical. Hang a map on the wall and let your kids mark it up. Buy a cheap globe and put it on the dinner table. The tactile experience of touching a country before praying for it grounds the prayer in something concrete.

Joshua Project (joshuaproject.net). The single best online resource for information about unreached people groups. Free. Searchable by country, people group, religion, or language. Their “Unreached People of the Day” feature gives you a new group to pray for every day without any effort.

Operation World (operationworld.org). A prayer guide organized by country. Each entry includes key statistics, a brief overview of the church in that country, and specific prayer points. The book version is excellent for families who prefer paper to screens.

Missions prayer cards. Physical cards with a photo, key facts, and prayer points for one people group. Your kids can hold them, carry them in their pockets, pin them to a bulletin board, or collect them in a box. Our guide to missions prayer cards for kids explains how to use them and where to find them.

A prayer journal. A simple notebook dedicated to prayer for the nations. Date each entry. Write the name of the country or people group. Record what you prayed for. Over time, flip back through old entries and see how God has been at work.

Your church’s missions board. Many churches support specific missionaries and people groups. Ask your missions pastor or committee for prayer cards, updates, and photo directories. Praying for missionaries your church actually supports creates a direct connection between your family’s prayers and the work on the ground.

When It Feels Small

There will be a Tuesday evening when your family prays for a country, and the prayer takes ninety seconds, and afterward someone asks, “Does that even do anything?”

It is a fair question. The world is enormous. The needs are staggering. There are 3.3 billion people in unreached people groups. Your family prayed for sixty seconds over a plate of spaghetti. The math does not seem to work.

But the Bible does not measure prayer by math.

“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16, ESV)

James does not say “the prayer of a righteous person has modest power.” He says great power. And the power does not depend on the length of the prayer, the eloquence of the words, or the theological sophistication of the person praying. It depends on the God who hears it.

And we have already seen what God does with those prayers. He collects them. He stores them in golden bowls. He holds them as incense before his throne (Revelation 5:8). There is not a single prayer for the nations that God has misplaced, forgotten, or ignored. Every one of them is accounted for.

John Piper has written that prayer is a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom. We are not calling headquarters to request a more comfortable bunk. We are calling in air support for an advance into enemy territory. When your family prays for the Uyghur people of western China, or the Fulani of West Africa, or the Brahmin of India, you are participating in a spiritual offensive that has been underway since Genesis 12, when God told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Your prayer is not small. It feels small because you are small. But the God who receives it is not small. He is the one who “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11), and he has chosen, for reasons that display his glory, to work through the prayers of his people, including the very small people who pray over chicken nuggets on Tuesday nights.

The question is never “Is my prayer big enough?” The question is “Is my God big enough?” And the answer, from Genesis to Revelation, is yes.

What Kids Can Learn from Praying for the Nations

A child who grows up praying for the nations learns things that no classroom can teach.

They learn that the world is bigger than their neighborhood. This sounds obvious, but it is not obvious to a six-year-old. A child’s world is their house, their school, their church, their grandparents’ house. Prayer for the nations cracks open the walls and lets the whole world in. Bangladesh is real. Papua New Guinea is real. The Sahara is real. The 800 languages of one island are real. The child’s imagination expands to fit the size of God’s concern.

They learn that God cares about people they have never met. This is a theological truth with practical consequences. If God loves the Berber people of Morocco with the same intensity that he loves your family in Ohio, then the Berber people matter. Their language matters. Their access to Scripture matters. Their children matter. A child who internalizes this truth will never be able to look at a news headline about a foreign country and think, “That’s not my problem.”

They learn to pray for things beyond their own needs. Self-centered prayer is natural. It is where all of us start. But a child who has been praying for the nations since age five develops a prayer life that habitually reaches beyond personal concerns. They learn to carry other people’s burdens to the throne of God, which is the definition of intercession.

They learn that they can participate in God’s global mission right now. They do not have to wait until they are adults. They do not have to wait until they have money, or a degree, or a plane ticket. They can pray today. And their prayers matter today. This is empowering for children in a way that few other spiritual practices are. A child who prays for the nations is not a spectator of the Great Commission. They are a participant.

They learn the geography of the world. This is a practical benefit, but it is real. A child who has prayed for fifty-two countries in a year knows where Bangladesh is. They know that Papua New Guinea is an island. They know that the Sahara stretches across North Africa. They know that Iran is not the same as Iraq. This geographical knowledge, earned through prayer, sticks in a way that flashcards never achieve.

To learn more about what unreached people groups are and why reaching them matters, our introductory article explains the concept in language families can discuss together.

The Finger on the Globe

It is Tuesday again. The Novak family is sitting around their kitchen table. The globe is in its usual place, between the salt shaker and the napkin holder. The scratch across the Pacific is a little deeper now, worn by months of small fingers spinning the sphere.

Clara, who is no longer five but nearly six, reaches across her plate. She spins the globe. It wobbles slightly on its plastic axis and then steadies, the continents blurring green and brown and blue. She puts her finger on it.

“Mozambique,” her father reads. He looks it up. Thirty-three million people. Portuguese is the official language, but most people speak local languages: Makhuwa, Tsonga, Sena. The country sits on the southeastern coast of Africa, facing the Indian Ocean. The church is growing in Mozambique, but there are still people groups in the northern provinces with almost no access to the gospel.

“Can we pray for them?” Clara asks. She asks this every Tuesday. She has been asking it for seven months.

They pray. Her brother prays for the kids in Mozambique. Her mother prays for the missionaries there. Her father prays for the Makhuwa-speaking people in the north, that they would hear the good news in their own language. Clara prays last. She says, “God, please help them know you love them.”

It takes four minutes.

Four minutes that connect a family of five in suburban America to 33 million people on the southeastern coast of Africa. Four minutes that reach the throne of the God who made 17,000 people groups and loves every one of them with a fierce, pursuing, relentless love. Four minutes that fill golden bowls with incense.

The globe is still sitting on the table. The continents are still there. The 7,000 languages, the 3.3 billion unreached people, the missionaries and translators and local believers and children who have never heard the name of Jesus: they are all still there.

But so is your family. And so is your God. And the distance between your kitchen table and the ends of the earth is exactly the distance of one prayer.

Spin the globe. Put your finger on it. Learn three facts. Pray.

It will be the most important four minutes of your week.