Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of December 29, 2021
Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
Holy Lord, we come to you at the midpoint of this week, still in awe of the beauty and sacredness of Christmas Eve. What joy to raise our voices in prayer and praise of your coming among us in glory! For all whose spirits were joined as one on that most holy night, we offer praises anew! Even in Christmastide, however, we realize the rattle of the marketplace has heightened its whirring, and already the media is re-emphasizing gloom. Calm both the restlessness of the world, we pray, and silence the noisy voices within us. Grant that we might remain at the manger a little longer, spending quiet moments in your presence. Only when we silently kneel at your modest crib will we hear what you have to say.
Emmanuel, God-With-Us, hear our prayer.
Humble One, Yet Revealed in Glory, we thank you that Christmas isn’t one day only, nor twelve, but is a life-long season. Your birth is the promise that brings us responsibilities, participation, and hope every day of the year. Your coming among us teaches that our lives matter to you and that our welfare is of tremendous importance. Ah, such undeserved gifts! Just as the shepherds, we bask in your light that shines even in our darkest corners, attending us in our weakness, lifting us up when we are dismayed, ever giving us purpose and direction. We walk in glory as we travel home to you.
Emmanuel, God-With-Us, hear our prayer.
Still, in the midst of our gratitude, Gracious Lord, we also experience dismay that we live within a conflicted realm. We know full well the human sufferings in Afghanistan; threats of war in the Middle East and Eastern Europe; the rapid increase of a new strain of Covid throughout the world; rampant violence in our nation’s cities; starvation of precious souls amid storehouses of plenty; and the brokenness of victims of natural disasters. Save us from despair and cynicism, we pray, as we yearn to be part of your restoration. Refresh our spirits for service; and bless the feet and hands and hearts of those messengers you have already anointed to do your bidding across the globe.
Emmanuel, God-With-Us, hear our prayer.
As Jesus came as one of us, he knew our infirmities and experienced our pain. Therefore, we share an intimate kinship with this Son of Grace who bids us boldly name our sorrows and lift our joys. These we humbly offer from our hearts . . . . . . . . . . ; and we also share these prayers offered by the people of Church Street:
- Thankful for prayers: A door to reconciliation has been opened
- Gratitude: deeply spiritual worship of Christmas Eve
- Thankful for all who offered daily Advent Devotionals
- Thanksgiving: Ill father was able to attend Christmas worship
- Two families are grateful from ongoing support of SS classes
- Thankful a mother survived surgery & is enduring chemo
- Gratitude: two friends are home from the hospital
- Thanksgiving: church couple healing steadily from Covid
- Gratitude: Grandfather was able to visit grandsons for Christmas
- Young friend with Covid is improving, prayers appreciated
- Healing prayers for a son & daughter with Covid
- Love & healing to surround family, wife/mother died December 22
- Church family mourning the death of mother/grandmother December 23
- Prayers for a grandson’s emotional healing, now is cloistered care
- Friend at UT in neuro unit, restoration from a fall
- Continued prayer for friend with cancer, recovers from oral surgery
- For a cherished nephew to seek help for his alcoholism
- Prayers for recovery: Mother in ICU, broken ribs & trauma
- Member family in NC all suffering from Covid
- Guidance for young mother estranged from husband
- A member seeks strength to fight cancer
- Grace for member valiantly enduring cancer treatments
- Reconciliation of differences within three families
- Pray for young couple recovering at home from serious illnesses
- God’s grace to surround a mother with cancer, for renewed hope
- Two suffering from depression and Parkinsons-related illness
- Faithful husband struggling with memory loss
- Grace to uphold dear friend soon entering hospice care
- Strength for daughter, extreme complications from Covid
- For doors of employment to open for gifted professional man
- Beloved husband undergoing chemotherapy
Faithful Emmanuel, baptize us anew as we enter this new year. Wash us with that profound truth that we are ever dependent upon you in this life, and that, you will always be with us. Provide us courage for every difficulty that will arise in the months to come and shower us with assurance amid all our uncertainties. Knowing our security lies in you, we offer all our prayers in the name of Christ, who taught us to pray:
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.
