The World Is Breaking Your Heart. But You Are Not Powerless.
Every day the news brings fresh heartbreak. Conflict, poverty, injustice, disaster, communities without the gospel. And every day, many Christians find themselves feeling the same combination of grief and helplessness — wanting to do something, but unsure what to do or where to begin.
But Christians are not powerless. God himself tells us what to do: pray. Petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving should be made for all people (1 Timothy 2:1–2). And when we pray in line with God's priorities as found in his Word, our prayers are powerful and effective (James 5:16).
The trouble is, most of us genuinely don't know where to start. How do you pray meaningfully for people you have never met, situations you can barely understand, and problems that feel too enormous to address in a few minutes of quiet time? The issues seem too big, too distant, too emotionally disconnected — and deep down, we wonder whether our prayers will really make any difference at all.
5 Things to Pray for Your World is designed to answer that question with a resounding yes — and to equip you to do it. Rachel Jones has created a practical, Scripture-grounded prayer guide that takes you through a wide range of local, national, and international issues, suggesting five specific, biblically rooted prayers for each one. Because the most powerful prayers are not the most eloquent — they are the ones most aligned with what God has already said in his Word.
What This Book Covers
Rachel Jones works through a wide range of real-world needs and situations, equipping readers to pray for them with biblical precision and genuine faith:
- Local community needs — Prayers for the people, places, and issues in your immediate neighbourhood and town
- National concerns — How to intercede for your nation's leaders, institutions, culture, and gospel witness
- International and global issues — Prayers for the nations, for people groups without the gospel, and for the great needs of the wider world
- Major world events — How to respond in prayer when disaster, conflict, or crisis breaks into the news
- Scripture as the foundation — Each spread takes a passage of Scripture and draws from it five specific, God-aligned prayers for a real issue
- A format designed for use — Simple, clear, and structured to be picked up and used in a variety of personal and corporate prayer contexts
What Readers Will Learn
- Why Christians are not powerless in the face of world events — and why prayer is the most significant thing they can do
- How to pray meaningfully for people they have never met and situations that feel distant or overwhelming
- How to use Scripture as the foundation for intercession — so that prayers are aligned with God's priorities and filled with genuine faith
- What it looks like to pray specifically rather than vaguely for local, national, and global needs
- How to respond in prayer when a major world event breaks into the news — with clarity, biblical direction, and genuine expectation
- Why prayers rooted in God's Word are powerful and effective — and how that truth can transform the way we approach intercession
- How to use this book in personal quiet times, small groups, church prayer meetings, and public intercessions
How to Use This Book
5 Things to Pray for Your World is flexible, practical, and immediately usable:
- Personal quiet times — Work through it as part of your daily or weekly prayer time, taking one spread per session
- Church prayer meetings — Use it to fuel and guide corporate intercession with biblical precision and fresh focus
- Public intercessions — Help those preparing prayers for Sunday services to intercede with clarity, Scripture, and genuine depth
- Small group prayer — A natural resource for groups wanting to pray together for the world beyond their immediate circle
- Response to world events — Pick it up whenever a situation arises that is in particular need of prayer — a crisis, a conflict, an election, a disaster
- Equipping church members — Give it to members who want to pray more meaningfully for their local community, nation, and the wider world
Who Should Read This Book
This book is for you if you are:
- A Christian who longs to pray for the world but finds yourself unsure where to start or how to pray in a way that feels meaningful and connected to Scripture
- A church leader or pastor looking for a practical, biblically grounded resource to fuel your congregation's intercession for the world
- A prayer meeting leader wanting fresh, Scripture-based material to guide corporate prayer for local, national, and global needs
- A new Christian who takes the command to pray for all people seriously but needs practical guidance to do it well
- Anyone who has ever watched the news, felt their heart break, and wondered: What can I actually do?
About the Author
Rachel Jones is an author and editor at The Good Book Company and a member of Grace Church, Cambridge. She is the author of several books in the 5 Things to Pray series, known for her warm, accessible, and practically grounded approach to helping Christians pray with greater biblical depth and confidence. Rachel writes with a genuine passion for prayer and a gift for making Scripture feel immediately applicable to the real situations Christians encounter — both in their own lives and in the wider world. Her books have helped thousands of Christians and churches develop a richer, more biblically rooted prayer life.
