Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of September 1, 2021
Written by Rev. Tim Best
Father of lights, we praise and thank you for your good and perfect gifts. We recognize the sins and temptations of the world around us. Yet your creation is from the beginning imprinted with your purpose and truth. Your Word has entered our hearts and made us a new community, dedicated to the works of your Spirit. Direct us in our calling to be first fruits of your new creation.
In a world that suffers, let our prayers rise to you above. From our hearts call compassion to rise for those whose pain is far off and whose circumstances are a mystery to us. When our understanding and patience falters, let our hearts be softened by your merciful call, that we might love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
Renew our minds that our thoughts would rise above our own self-obsession and think often of our neighbors. Let our thinking and speaking be transformed that we might share the mind of Christ. In our speaking, our leading, and our daily choices, may our minds always turn towards others in service and obedience to you.
The Book of James encourage us to raise our hands in service to your kingdom. We recognize that we cannot build your kingdom; You O Christ our Lord build your kingdom upon your own actions and grace. Yet, we are called to serve your kingdom. You have invited us to partner with you in the work of your kingdom. May we offer our service to the world around us in witness to your love. Let us raise our hands in service and in praise.
As we raise our hearts, minds, and hands in prayer this morning we are mindful of so much pain and need. We ask that you would continue to be with those who grieve and suffer in Waverly, TN. Be with the citizens of Haiti and all who work to serve them now. We pray for the victims of the hurricanes that have battered southern and eastern coasts. Guide us to action that we would not only react to natural disasters, but that we would work and serve to protect the earth, ensure safe homes for our neighbors, and protect the vulnerable from future disasters.
We lift up all healthcare workers. Give them strength as they seek to heal and comfort the sick. Guide our actions that we would be a support to those who tend to the pains and sufferings of others. As our health system is again stretched, let your love stretch beyond our weariness and the exhaustion of all those who give care. May all find rest in you, O God.
We pray for our leaders, for those who make decisions for our community, the nation and the world. We pray for Afghanistan and all those involved, from foreign leaders to Afghan families seeking safety or overwhelmed with fear. We pray for all those who died at the Kabul airport, including 13 Americans serving in uniform. We lift up all those who have died and suffered over twenty years of war.
Be present to all those who are grieving. We pray that your church would be a beacon of peace in our community and throughout the world. We lift in prayer these concerns and joys of our church family. React with compassion, we pray, to the prayers of your people.
- Thankful for dedicated healthcare and hospital workers
- One thankful for help of Parish Health Team advice
- Grateful for a clear mammogram
- Prayers appreciated for safe travel- all well
- Thanksgiving – daughter’s first birthday
- A paralyzed grandson now has wrist & toe movement
- Gratitude for prayers for safe travel – all is going well
- Two are grateful for new caregiving helpers
- Family celebrates birth of a beautiful new granddaughter
- Thankful for prayers – sister’s surgery went smoothly
- Courage & strength for family mourning sudden death of husband/father
- Psychological healing for cherished grandson (21) his family
- Recovery grandson’s paralysis
- Prayers for husband having bladder surgery Thursday
- Caregiver/friend in dire condition – Covid
- Courage, guidance for wife whose husband died August 31
- Daughter on ventilator – Covid, healing for her husband & 2 children
- Co-worker friend (and family), son-in-law killed in Kabul on Friday
- Prayers for recovery of member’s vision & severe back pain
- 2 sons whose mother died in Haiti; a husband with phlebitis
- Grace & safety for grieving family – death of mother in North Carolina
- Dear friend – ICU with cancer, heart, kidney disorders
- Safety for couple flying from Europe to Knoxville this weekend
- Dickson and Humphreys County flood victims and government officials making major relief decisions
- Exhausted nurse striving to survive pandemic workload
- Cousin in critical lung distress, Covid complications
- Strength for family, grieving death of grandson (12)
May your loving Spirit surround each of these who reach out to you with their specific thanksgivings and their deepest prayers. It was the Apostle Paul who taught us to pray without ceasing; and even as we close with the Lord’s Prayer, let our hearts rise in prayer to meet the world you created and love:
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.
