BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
February 23, 2021
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
O Perfecting One, at twilight time, we remember how you came to us in surprising ways in the daylight hours. You didn’t give us what we wanted; instead, you gave what we needed. We aimed for success, but you began teaching us acceptance. We wanted to be admired and appreciated, but you kept asking us to love even those we do not like. We longed for an easy road with no snags, but you presented detours that challenged our own capabilities. It seems that when we prayed that we might grow in our faith this Lenten Season, you took us seriously. We really did mean it, Lord, so in the tomorrows that come, help us set aside our sniveling and get on with business — Jesus’ business — of perfecting our souls.
Steadfast One, in our Christian journey, we confess that there are times when our feelings resonate with the psalmist who said: “I am like an owl in the wilderness, like a little owl of the wasteland, like a lonely bird on the housetop.” It isn’t that we feel abandoned necessarily, but it seems that the good we do is so insignificant in a world that threatens to implode. We feed one and twenty more hungry ones take his place; we sit at the bedside of the ill friend, only to find three others have died alone in the night; we help stabilize one family, when across town entire neighborhoods are being torn apart by violence. We know that nothing is impossible with you, O God, so come to us in our weakness. Reassure us that your desire is for us to stay the course and serve as best we can as long as we can.
Thank you for making room in the shaded hours for our honest conversations. Even when we have no words, the apostle reminds us to pray without ceasing. And so we humbly place the praises and longings of our own hearts at your feet . . . . . . . . . . and also these sincere petitions from our church family:
- Seven offer gratitude for recent vaccinations
- Gratitude for prayers from member recovering from surgery
- Member grateful for a beach vacation
- Thanksgiving: Evidence that cancer treatments are effective
- Celebrating upcoming opportunity for in-person worship
- Gratitude for the gift of an exquisite day
- Prayers for all children who struggle with learning and are behind academically
- Prayers for a good pathology report
- All working to address gun violence in our city
- Family members in North Carolina, suffering with Covid
- Healing for young husband with Covid
- Prayers for adult son to become more responsible
- Continued healing: Mother recovering from a stroke
- Grieving family who lost a newborn
- Our schools and administrators at every level
- Prayers for one in radiation treatment
- Guidance for adult children, need guidance in caring for elderly mother
- Member having knee surgery Thursday
- Two seeking new work opportunities
May the Re-Creator, the One who makes all things new, enter our souls this night, granting us a restorative rest. And with morning light, may we arise refreshed in spirit, ready to walk that more demanding trail that awaits all true friends of Jesus:
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.
