BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
October 15, 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
O Holy Vision, some of us walk bruised, burdened, and blinded through the ways of the world. We continue to question the unease, the uncertainty, the unknown. The apostle said that we see through a glass darkly, as through a clouded mirror; he said that ours is not to know all things in this realm. Rather, we are asked to live by faith and not by sight. And we do, though it is sometimes frightfully hard. So in these pressing times, we ask for a tender memory of your loving promise: that one day we shall all see clearly, and then face-to-face. Until that grand shadowless day arrives, may we trust in your sure and certain providence.
Loving God, hear our prayer.
Dearest Confidant, we praise you that our lives remain an open book to you, for you know the secrets of our hearts, our deepest desires, and our long-held dreams. There is no need to rehash our pasts with you, no need to explain our plans or motives with you, for you never forget. Oh, what a blessing it is to merely pick up where we left off when last we conversed. You keep your back door unlatched for us, always willing to sit for a spell, to speak of both the trivial and the weighty, no matter how late the hour. A wise one once said that the best things in life are free. Whoever he was, he must have known the joy of sitting in your sacred presence.
Loving God, hear our prayer.
Kindest Heart, help us to look with the kindness of Jesus upon each one who crosses our path today. May our own hearts remain especially open to those who have been bitterly bruised by the world. Perhaps our small gestures of tenderness might not turn their lives around, but they just might offer a glimmer of grace that will soften their hearts. Thank you for taking all your little ones under your wing, and we know that you also remember these particular situations offered by your children at Church Street:
- Gratitude for a mini-reunion with friends after long separation
- Two families offer thankfulness for a fall respite
- Remember wife at Mayo Clinic on Friday, wisdom for diagnosticians
- Prayers for brother-in-law in Chicago with esophageal cancer; upholding of his wife who also cares for her father with dementia
- Friend with cancer, caregiver for sibling with cancer & an elderly mother
- Prayers for guidance for a member making a weighty decision
- Healing prayers for two broken families & children involved
- Lift up a custody mediation proceeding, that all might go well
- Cherished wife & mother undergoing surgery today
- Prayers for member in pain & may have to have more gum surgery
- Friend in Atlanta facing significant surgery 1/19, for worried family, for wisdom & skill of her surgeons
- Healing mercies for members of 3 families suffering from Covid-19
- Continued prayers for 97-yr-old mother with virus & worried family
- Wisdom & focus for member taking 4-day intensive course
- Complete healing of 2-yr-old son who had leg surgery recently
Loving God, may this day ahead be dedicated to you; and whatever transpires, may you be pleased with our efforts. May all that we undertake be reminiscent of those timeless deeds of goodness carried out by our Teacher, Jesus the Christ, who told us to pray in this way:
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.
