BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
September 2, 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
And let us know be weary in well doing, for in
due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Gal. 6:9
Abiding God, we praise you for your enduring guidance. You sent Jesus, our Teacher and Messiah, to model for us the way of love. He asked us to seek out the least and the lost, to feed the hungry, to comfort the sick, to befriend the stranger and the outcast, to sow peace where there is strife, and to speak out for justice. Our efforts have been life-long, as you know, but in many ways we feel we have made such little difference. Thank you, Lord, for overlooking our meager crop. Remind us that the growing season is not quite over, and if we continue to tend the plantings, the good harvest will come.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
O God Beyond Our Understanding, although we strive for the good, we wonder why those old scraps of failure linger. Life is truly a muddle and we see our gaffes and blunders standing out quite vividly in our memory. It’s as if all those dark pieces are lying face-up on a table. Your hand of grace is at work, however, snapping those pieces together with our brighter moments: the light and the dark, the good and the bad, the extraordinary and the mundane, the losses and the gains. Surprisingly, the pieces fit together nicely and a surprising picture begins to take shape. And we glimpse a certain beauty and peace reflected, as in a soothing landscape. Imprint that scene within us, we pray; then we will know in the end that the apostle’s teaching was correct: “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord.”
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We come into your presence to name those things that are uppermost in our hearts. You already know our deepest joys and our keenest hurts, yet you are eager to listen as we share our thoughts with you. For your benevolence in recent times, we humbly thank you, and for our concerns, we implore your mercy, particularly for . . . . . . . . . . . To these we add the joys and the trials of our people at Church Street:
- Gratitude for prayers: a member’s depression is lifting
- One rejoices that an old friendship has been renewed
- Thankful that a friend with virus is vastly improved
- Cancer survivor relieved- gastrointestinal exams were all clear
- Grateful for prayers: friend with heart issues is now home
- Member celebrates: a second surgery will not be required
- One recovering from Monday surgery is feeling very well
- Healing prayers: husband suffering from painful shingles
- 2 NICU babies are gaining weight, but continue prayers
- Prayers: family with Covid-19, healing of multiple complications
- Member at Vanderbilt awaiting at-risk childbirth today
- Continued prayers for safety: family members living in Kenosha, WI
- Uncle isolated in MS nursing home, in rapid decline & his lonely wife
- Relief of anxiety for one facing court proceeding
- Prayers for healing: 3 fathers with Covid-19, safety for their families
- A young relative & family, searching for effective cancer meds
- Healing of dear friend diagnosed with auto-immune disease
- Prayers for mother in assisted living, in very weak condition
- Sudden death on Monday of a longtime friend, comfort for all
- 2 mothers suffering with cancer-related pain & discomfort
O God of Possibilities, look with favor upon each one who calls out to you this day. We know you hear even the briefest plea uttered in your name. Illumine our hearts and renew our waning spirits as we again pray the words taught us by our Blessed Savior:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
