BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
November 25, 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
Morning Star, in the light you have placed within us, we see clearly the world in all its discord, and we are well-acquainted with the disharmony in our personal lives. You have spoken of your bright dream for the world as you would have it: a place of peace and plenty, a place of health and fitness, a place where equality and justice hold sway, a place where each child is valued and cherished. We whittle away at the discrepancy between your dream and this realm’s stark reality, and we confess that we become discouraged at our slow progress. Help us to focus, however, not only on those shadowy situations we have not rectified, but to give thanks for what has already been accomplished through your strength and blazing purity. You have called us to work for the kingdom you envision, so if we remain faithful to this aim, that is all you ask. It is as the apostle taught: if some of us sow the seed, while others water, then you, O Bright Star, will give the growth.
O God of Tender Heart, when we remember those in our very midst who suffer this day, there is a deep ache inside. We see in the mind of our hearts those who are lonely, but who cannot have visitors. We remember those with dreaded illness, but we dare not sit with them. We picture friends who are in mourning, but we cannot offer personal comfort. We depend upon you, O One Who Suffers With Us, to take each hurting soul under your wings, and give them your comfort until we might safely minister to them ourselves. And Lord, in addition to these, we pray for ourselves, that during this time of contagion, we may become as ardent in our prayers as Jesus.
And we now turn over to you these celebrations of your goodness and also the yearnings of your people at Church Street. And as we pray for each, may your light of tender grace penetrate every soul:
- A husband in critical care following a fall and brain surgery has regained consciousness – family and medical teams grateful for prayers
- Family celebrates the birth of a healthy baby boy
- Thanksgiving for a very successful UMW bake sale
- Thankful: A son with kidney stone is home from hospital
- Prayers appreciated: Knee surgery went very well yesterday
- Healing prayers for a brother on ventilator in Chicago, effects of COVID and for his family members who are all infected
- Comfort for family whose father died yesterday of COVID
- Prayers for a Christian friend having surgery early today
- Solace for family mourning death of their mother
- Prayers for peace and protection for a mother & special friends
- Prayers for a daughter’s health and happiness for family
- Protection and safety for all who are traveling this holiday
- A nephew in Nashville who is homeless
- Healing of a teenage daughter
- Healing of close friend in ICU with COVID pneumonia
- Blending of two families as a wedding approaches
- Healing prayers for husband recovering from heart surgery
- Strength for one caring for family member in ill health
- All medical workers and all ill with COVID
- Continued prayer: that a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor, preparing him for surgery
Bless all your children everywhere who bow in prayer this day. May our collective prayers become one blanket of blessing covering our universe. And underneath its holy warmth, help us to breathe calmly and take our rest in peace, knowing that we serve a God who neither slumbers nor sleeps. All these things we ask for Christ’s sake:
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.
