BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
November 24, 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
Life in this world has a way of wounding us, sometimes within an inch of our lives; and at many junctures we wound ourselves. We need only sift through our memories to count the foolish mistakes we have made, the hurts we have suffered, the pain we have inflicted upon others. But in this season of turning, the dry and crackling leaves send us a clear message: what’s done is done, what has been before has passed; yet what has withered and fallen to the ground becomes the rich loam which fertilizes the new. The pieces of a broken vessel can be cemented and filled with healing oil to bless the wounds of another. Today let us celebrate the extraordinary power of our God who fashions something remarkable from a regrettable mistake, who creates a road within the wilderness, who brings new life to the one thought to be lifeless!
Caring Friend, we are here before you, again admitting that we often miss the mark; but we believe you know how complicated our lives have become during these months since the unpredictable virus crowned himself the king of predators, hammering down our personal defenses. Many careers have been stalled or shattered; unemployment lines grow longer and longer; more families are hungry; rent is overdue; patience is thin and tempers flare. And worst of all is the menacing disease itself that stealthily preys upon the elderly, the homeless, and the weak.
Because we know the Living Christ welcomes all prayers that come from our hearts, his arms are open to receive our burdens. Even though his eyes fill with tears when he beholds our suffering and hears our laments, he has been working on our behalf. We offer profound gratitude for the skill, wisdom, and determination given to all researchers dedicated to the production of a virus vaccine. We pray it will meet with approval, with expedient distribution to those most in need, and with effective results. And One Who Waits With Us, give us signs along the way that we shall make it through.
All these things we ask, and remembering your great mercy, we also offer the prayers from the hearts of your people at Church Street. We feel your power at work within us and through us, even as we lift these prayers on behalf of our brothers and sisters:
- Grateful for prayers: Cardiac test met with good results
- One expresses joy that he has employment
- Thankful that a family conflict is working itself out
- Gratitude: 126 Thanksgiving baskets were prepared by church volunteers to help feed the hungry in our community
- Healing prayers for a brother on ventilator in Chicago, effects of COVID & for his family members who are all infected
- One asks for prayers for peace and protection for his mother and special friends
- Prayers for a daughter’s health, sufficient food and happiness for family
- Healing prayers: Parents and grandparents in ICU
- A nephew in Nashville who is homeless
- Comfort for all mourning virus death of a talented musician
- Blending of two families as a wedding approaches
- Healing prayers for husband recovering from heart surgery
- Strength for one caring for former husband in ill health
- Grace for dear friend in ICU with COVID pneumonia and peace for family
- Continued prayer: That a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor, preparing him for surgery
- Member undergoing knee surgery today and for her surgeon
- Beloved husband in hospice care, wife who is grieving
Thank you, Sacred One, for calling us to be your people. Continue to bind us together with all believers everywhere, until we are one resilient body, joining as one mighty voice to sing your song of hope, and praying together the words taught us by our 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.
