The South Africa We Pray4.
The initiative "The South Africa we pray for" is a call for South Africans to hold fast to hope for what is not yet seen and strive towards its realisation. Let South Africa rise, see what is happening, reflect on it and act boldly. It's a call for courage, truth, honesty and accountability. It's a call for all citizens not to allow "birds" of negative actions to build on the "hair" of our young democracy and our beautiful land. Flying over the land are dangerous and destructive forces of corruption, bad leadership, patronage, neglect of the poor, violence and many more. These cannot and must not be allowed to build their nests here. All people of faith and all citizens are called upon to focus our energies on things that can lead to positive change. Compiled by the SACC 21 December 2025.
The Prayer:
Our Father: Through this recognition of God as Our Father, we already acknowledge each other as co-siblings, not only with Christ, but with each other in the “our” of our togetherness as children of the household of God our Father. This very phrase convicts us to pray and work together. Our use of this phrase represents a submission to the parenthood of God; it is our acceptance of the invitation of Jesus to recognize God as our parent, in a far greater way than we have ever experienced. (Rom 8:15-17; 1 John 3:1-12). When we say Our Father in The South Africa We Pray4, just using the phrase, we are consciously and deliberately calling on God the Father of our Lord to adopt the people of our country, to father, protect, rebuke and guide us in his limitless love: Our Father!
Hallowed be your name: (Lev 19:12; Exod. 20:7) What children ought not to honour their parental name? When we say Our Father in The South Africa We Pray4, we pray a commitment to have God’s name be sanctified and honoured by our presence, our commitments and our acts; so that what we think, say and do in this campaign will be to the honour and glory of God’s name: Hallowed be your name!
Your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as in heaven: Yes, for the parental reign of God over all things brings freedom, justice, peace, reconciliation and the wellbeing for all. The South Africa We Pray4 is indeed the will of God for our society – a just, peaceful, reconciled, equitable and sustainable society, we commit to pray and work for this in the assurance that it is the loving will of Our Father that all may be well for our country and its people. So may God’s will for the least and the weakest of our people be fulfilled through our responsive care; and may we as God’s children, individually and collectively live the will of the Father, that we do it, and have ways of monitoring it in our society, and of monitoring ourselves, of guarding ourselves from straying: Father, let your rule be evident in my life and that of my family, my community and my country!
Give us today our daily bread: Firstly, this confirms the secure feeling of dependence of our loving and providential Father, where the children depend on the providing role of their parent. But more significantly, it points to the trust that we as children, are called to have in the parenthood of God, who provides for today, that the same God will provide tomorrow.
The idea of our common sibling-hood under the parentage of God reminds us that the parent involves the whole family in striving for the livelihood of the home – all of us have our share of work in the cornfields, preventing the animals from destroying the family crops, etc.; therefore we all in God’s household, have a role to play in the economic sphere, and the political structures that determine who gets what in the country. We have a prophetic duty to prevent the selfish plundering of our natural resources by those who have the power to squander and destroy. We also have a duty to guard the environment and ecology from both ignorant abuse and deliberate carelessness. Give us this day is not just about a consumer mindset for God to provide, but it is also an acknowledgement in The South Africa We Pray4, of our role in the economy of God’s provision for all God’s people and our responsibility to curb corruption and greed in favour of equitable access to the Father’s provisioning.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us: Our recognition of our common sibling-hood is also a recognition of our common togetherness in the presence of God our Father – a place of love, reconciliation, mutual affirmation and interdependence. Can that happen without a commitment to this clause of the Lord’s Prayer? The South Africa We Pray4 is mounted on the fundamental platform of healing and reconciliation – a position that requires us to search ourselves for our part in the lack of reconciliation in our country our selfishness, our being absorbed in ourselves and undermine the worth and dignity of the other; our sustaining a economic order that survives through the necessary impoverishment and denying the other. We are reminded of the interdependence between our being forgiven and our readiness to forgive the other: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from time of trial: Yes, even when we fail the trials of life, we come back home to recover our being. Christ teaches us to continuously pray for the grace to be spared by the all-powerful Parent, of the worst of trials and temptations (Luke 21:36). Jesus himself was led to the wilderness and faced the temptations of quick fixes – turn these stones into bread; the temptation of making his human self equal to or above God – “if you bow to me (the Devil says) I shall give you power over all!” (Philippians 2: 1-11); the temptation to dare God’s love – “Throw yourself down and God will send angels to protect you! In The South Africa We Pray4, we seek no quick fixes, but faithful dedication to God’s will for a just, peaceful, reconciled, equitable and sustainable society; we seek no power, glory or political authority; and we seek no special protection from the cost of our discipleship – The South Africa We Pray4 offers no cheap grace!
Deliver us from evil: God is both our parent and the origin of our origins, as some would say, God is the original ancestor of all our ancestors – uMvelinqangi. Our Father is the Omniscient One who knows all there was, all there is, and all there shall be. The Almighty God has power and authority over all evil, as Jesus says: “All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth…” (Matthew 28: 18). Those who cast out evil spirits in exorcism often name evils and their sources in the process of exorcising them (Mark 5:1-20). Thus our duty when we pray is to name the evils that each one of us experiences. Naming it is a step in the course of exercising authority and defeating the evil. In The South Africa We Pray4, we name the evils we seek to exorcise in the healing and reconciliation of our society – the dehumanization in the practice of how people relate to and treat each other – of racism, ethnicism, xenophobia and gender denigration; to exorcise the evil of poverty and inequality, of economic deprivation, of family brokenness, of corruption and maladministration: Our Father, deliver us from evil!
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours for ever: It is this clause, more than any other, that calls us to surrender and to submit ourselves, our power (financial, political and talent and skill) to the glory of God. It is here that our conversation about giving of ourselves begins. Of sharing with others for immediate needs in the three steps of eliminating neighbourhood poverty one family a time, one ward a time; of giving of our time, our energy, our hopes, joys, and even our pain and suffering, all these are placed at the altar of God’s power in humility in our prayerful surrender to God our Father in The South Africa We Pray4.
Amen: May it be so! Bayede makube njalo! Pula ho be joalo! With this affirmative acclamations we acknowledge that the declarations, the petitions, the doxologies take on a new meaning for a prayer that is recited by young and old in every dingy corner and every lofty hill of the Republic of South Africa, in distress and in joy, in the pain of any bondage and the celebration of every liberty!
Thus in The South Africa We Pray4, the “Lord’s Prayer”, the most common and widely prayed in every language takes on a new meaning, and fuels the vision of a reconciled – “forgive us our sins as we forgive others”; equitable – “give us this day our daily bread”; and just society – “Your (just) Kingdom come, your will be done!”
For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours (in The South Africa We Pray4) now and forever! Amen! Amen!!
Read the full document here
Transformation Christian Network (TCN) supports this document as a guideline to pray for South Africa
Visit our "Purposeful Payer" index page here
The initiative "The South Africa we pray for" is a call for South Africans to hold fast to hope for what is not yet seen and strive towards its realisation. Let South Africa rise, see what is happening, reflect on it and act boldly. It's a call for courage, truth, honesty and accountability. It's a call for all citizens not to allow "birds" of negative actions to build on the "hair" of our young democracy and our beautiful land. Flying over the land are dangerous and destructive forces of corruption, bad leadership, patronage, neglect of the poor, violence and many more. These cannot and must not be allowed to build their nests here. All people of faith and all citizens are called upon to focus our energies on things that can lead to positive change. Compiled by the SACC 21 December 2025.
The Prayer:
Our Father: Through this recognition of God as Our Father, we already acknowledge each other as co-siblings, not only with Christ, but with each other in the “our” of our togetherness as children of the household of God our Father. This very phrase convicts us to pray and work together. Our use of this phrase represents a submission to the parenthood of God; it is our acceptance of the invitation of Jesus to recognize God as our parent, in a far greater way than we have ever experienced. (Rom 8:15-17; 1 John 3:1-12). When we say Our Father in The South Africa We Pray4, just using the phrase, we are consciously and deliberately calling on God the Father of our Lord to adopt the people of our country, to father, protect, rebuke and guide us in his limitless love: Our Father!
Hallowed be your name: (Lev 19:12; Exod. 20:7) What children ought not to honour their parental name? When we say Our Father in The South Africa We Pray4, we pray a commitment to have God’s name be sanctified and honoured by our presence, our commitments and our acts; so that what we think, say and do in this campaign will be to the honour and glory of God’s name: Hallowed be your name!
Your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as in heaven: Yes, for the parental reign of God over all things brings freedom, justice, peace, reconciliation and the wellbeing for all. The South Africa We Pray4 is indeed the will of God for our society – a just, peaceful, reconciled, equitable and sustainable society, we commit to pray and work for this in the assurance that it is the loving will of Our Father that all may be well for our country and its people. So may God’s will for the least and the weakest of our people be fulfilled through our responsive care; and may we as God’s children, individually and collectively live the will of the Father, that we do it, and have ways of monitoring it in our society, and of monitoring ourselves, of guarding ourselves from straying: Father, let your rule be evident in my life and that of my family, my community and my country!
Give us today our daily bread: Firstly, this confirms the secure feeling of dependence of our loving and providential Father, where the children depend on the providing role of their parent. But more significantly, it points to the trust that we as children, are called to have in the parenthood of God, who provides for today, that the same God will provide tomorrow.
The idea of our common sibling-hood under the parentage of God reminds us that the parent involves the whole family in striving for the livelihood of the home – all of us have our share of work in the cornfields, preventing the animals from destroying the family crops, etc.; therefore we all in God’s household, have a role to play in the economic sphere, and the political structures that determine who gets what in the country. We have a prophetic duty to prevent the selfish plundering of our natural resources by those who have the power to squander and destroy. We also have a duty to guard the environment and ecology from both ignorant abuse and deliberate carelessness. Give us this day is not just about a consumer mindset for God to provide, but it is also an acknowledgement in The South Africa We Pray4, of our role in the economy of God’s provision for all God’s people and our responsibility to curb corruption and greed in favour of equitable access to the Father’s provisioning.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us: Our recognition of our common sibling-hood is also a recognition of our common togetherness in the presence of God our Father – a place of love, reconciliation, mutual affirmation and interdependence. Can that happen without a commitment to this clause of the Lord’s Prayer? The South Africa We Pray4 is mounted on the fundamental platform of healing and reconciliation – a position that requires us to search ourselves for our part in the lack of reconciliation in our country our selfishness, our being absorbed in ourselves and undermine the worth and dignity of the other; our sustaining a economic order that survives through the necessary impoverishment and denying the other. We are reminded of the interdependence between our being forgiven and our readiness to forgive the other: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from time of trial: Yes, even when we fail the trials of life, we come back home to recover our being. Christ teaches us to continuously pray for the grace to be spared by the all-powerful Parent, of the worst of trials and temptations (Luke 21:36). Jesus himself was led to the wilderness and faced the temptations of quick fixes – turn these stones into bread; the temptation of making his human self equal to or above God – “if you bow to me (the Devil says) I shall give you power over all!” (Philippians 2: 1-11); the temptation to dare God’s love – “Throw yourself down and God will send angels to protect you! In The South Africa We Pray4, we seek no quick fixes, but faithful dedication to God’s will for a just, peaceful, reconciled, equitable and sustainable society; we seek no power, glory or political authority; and we seek no special protection from the cost of our discipleship – The South Africa We Pray4 offers no cheap grace!
Deliver us from evil: God is both our parent and the origin of our origins, as some would say, God is the original ancestor of all our ancestors – uMvelinqangi. Our Father is the Omniscient One who knows all there was, all there is, and all there shall be. The Almighty God has power and authority over all evil, as Jesus says: “All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth…” (Matthew 28: 18). Those who cast out evil spirits in exorcism often name evils and their sources in the process of exorcising them (Mark 5:1-20). Thus our duty when we pray is to name the evils that each one of us experiences. Naming it is a step in the course of exercising authority and defeating the evil. In The South Africa We Pray4, we name the evils we seek to exorcise in the healing and reconciliation of our society – the dehumanization in the practice of how people relate to and treat each other – of racism, ethnicism, xenophobia and gender denigration; to exorcise the evil of poverty and inequality, of economic deprivation, of family brokenness, of corruption and maladministration: Our Father, deliver us from evil!
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours for ever: It is this clause, more than any other, that calls us to surrender and to submit ourselves, our power (financial, political and talent and skill) to the glory of God. It is here that our conversation about giving of ourselves begins. Of sharing with others for immediate needs in the three steps of eliminating neighbourhood poverty one family a time, one ward a time; of giving of our time, our energy, our hopes, joys, and even our pain and suffering, all these are placed at the altar of God’s power in humility in our prayerful surrender to God our Father in The South Africa We Pray4.
Amen: May it be so! Bayede makube njalo! Pula ho be joalo! With this affirmative acclamations we acknowledge that the declarations, the petitions, the doxologies take on a new meaning for a prayer that is recited by young and old in every dingy corner and every lofty hill of the Republic of South Africa, in distress and in joy, in the pain of any bondage and the celebration of every liberty!
Thus in The South Africa We Pray4, the “Lord’s Prayer”, the most common and widely prayed in every language takes on a new meaning, and fuels the vision of a reconciled – “forgive us our sins as we forgive others”; equitable – “give us this day our daily bread”; and just society – “Your (just) Kingdom come, your will be done!”
For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours (in The South Africa We Pray4) now and forever! Amen! Amen!!
Read the full document here
Transformation Christian Network (TCN) supports this document as a guideline to pray for South Africa
Visit our "Purposeful Payer" index page here