BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
January 11, 2021
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
O Keeper of the Hours, daylight is seeping away and the twisted fingers of the oaks seem to be waving good-bye to the foggy hillsides. For many, sundown seems to come too soon, for deadlines have not been met, boxes on to-do lists have not checked off, meetings have not yet adjourned. Ah, but in your wisdom, you know our inner weariness and wish us to open that gate of rest. Let us cross through that passageway soon with grateful hearts, for in the evening hours you have important things to teach us. Soothe our minds and calm our spirits, we pray, that in the stillness to come we might even hear the soft beating of your heart . . . . . . . . . .
Your Son Jesus said that eye has not seen nor ear heard what you have planned for us in that other realm. And despite our setbacks, fears, and grave disappointments, you have already gifted us in this earthly province with wonders beyond imagining: for life itself, in all its mystery and joys, for the guiding light of your church, for friends who never forsake, for family members who care, for your belief in us, for those who labor on our behalf, and for all these other graces you have bequeathed us through your mercy . . . . . . . . . . How blessed are we who need not measure up; we are accepted and blessed as we are! Thanks be to God!
Sentinel of the Night, as the shadows deepen, let us release our grip on all those tensions that have plagued us this day: our beloved nation fraying at the edges, friends who are in trouble, paychecks that are insufficient, the virus that wears a threatening grimace, unraveling relationships, loved ones who have died without a tender embrace. Let us open our hands and, one by one, may we offer to your transfiguring grace all these burdens and others that have made a home within us . . . . . . . . . . .
Take all these, we pray, and wrap them in your renewing grace. As you are the God who never sleeps until all his sheep are nestled in, we will rest easier with you on the lookout. Tend your people of Church Street, receiving both their joys and their pressing needs:
- Thankful that one is home from hospital
- Gratitude for an unexpected gift
- Thanksgiving that cancer was detected early
- One celebrates news of her cancer remission
- Member released from rehab and now in his home
- Member grateful for clear cancer scans offers
- Member thankful: Healing well after knee surgery
- Wisdom for national leaders and healing of our country’s wounds
- Continued prayers for one with heart condition
- That a new drug may slow the growth of one’s cancer
- Courage and strength for one facing major surgery this week
- Dear friend hospitalized, diagnosis unknown
- Prayers that one’s side effects of chemo are minimal
- Healing of beloved husband with covid pneumonia
- One who begins chemo treatments on Friday
- That a couple may retrieve funds lost in a scam
- For God’s guidance in finding employment
- Members mourning the death of a dear friend
- God’s presence with the lonely and isolated
- Continued prayers: One recovering from heart surgery
Guardian of the Worn and Weary, we lie down in peace; and as we enter that world of slumber, we are confident that all shall be well. Calm our spirits till they are one with yours, and receive all these prayers we offer in the redeeming name of your Son, who taught us to say:
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.
