BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
September 24, 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
O Giver of Gifts, you hold out a new day, all wrapped with ribbon sublime, trusting that we will open it with care, using its 1,440 minutes wisely and meaningfully. We thank you that you will not calculate how much we produce during this freely offered bundle of time, for you are not really in the record-keeping business. But you do hope that we will be judicious as we spend our moments in personal encounters, in taking up our tasks, in sharing ministry with others, and in thoughtful contemplation of the sacred. And as the hours unfold, grant that we might learn to be grateful, not just for the high points, but also for the downtimes, as each may bring an important lesson we need to take to heart. And may we remember the love with which this autumn-colored gift was given.
All-Seeing One, there are many among us who live their days under a heavy fog, a free-floating fear that tinges everything they say and do. That unsettling fear has become thicker these past months, as virulent illness and rage take on new forms. We pray we will not allow the present uncertainties to eclipse our sense of promise. Turn that fear, we pray, into a holy mist through which your omnipotence shines in all its clarity. Then we shall once again proclaim that nothing in all the earth can separate us from your love and deliverance through Christ, our Lord!
Touch all who are in pain or any adversity this day; and make your presence known, we pray, to those suffering souls whose names we now whisper in the silence of these moments . . . . . . . . . . . . And also attend to these requests that are voiced by your children at Church Street:
- Family offers thanks for blessing of a son’s marriage on Tuesday
- Thanksgiving for all who are giving to eradicate hunger in our region
- Gratitude for our music program & all who willingly share their gifts
- Thankful for friend improving after a brain bleed
- Gratitude for healthcare workers & first responders
- For a friend’s home to sell — owner needs to move close to family
- Friend (62) with head & neck cancer, relief for radiation burns
- Prayers for cherished sister in hospice care in FLA; traveling mercies for family members who will be surrounding her with love
- Continued prayers for healing of NICU baby & his weary parents
- Protection for all in the path of storms, floods, and fire
- Member ill in assisted living, comfort for him, his wife & family
- Member suffering greatly with back pain, prayers for relief
- Prayers for a mother-to-be, that coming weeks will bring safe delivery
- Friend with kidney cancer, continuing to trust in God through all his days
- Proper diagnosis of young daughter’s fainting issues
Life-Giving God, we praise you for life itself, for your abiding guidance, and for our Teacher and Messiah who modeled for us the way of love. We confess that we still waver each day, but amid our uncertain steps, may your love shine through our actions, that others will know our hearts are in the right place. Through that same Messiah, by whose pattern we seek to live, we make our prayer:
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.
