BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 24, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

We can just make out the remnants of this pristine day through the last of the mottled clouds on the skyline. We thank you that you do not keep winter’s beauty to yourself, but share it so freely with us. Forever Friend, all our moments belong to you and you call us away from our day of entanglements to sit with you in the sundown hours. What better way to end this day of gifts than to share our gratitude with the One who cherishes our friendship?  We shall take it and file it in our treasure chest of memories.

We confess, oh Lord, that we listen too closely to the seductive tunes of power and possession that the world plays. During this season of re-centering, touch our ears that we may hear the songs of our Savior. We confess there was a biting edge in our remarks today; touch our lips that we might speak only gentle words. We confess that we hold onto our bitterness and hurt; touch our hands that we might release the dead past. And once healed, may our gift to you be the service we render our sisters and brothers whose hopes and dreams you have asked us to carry. Receive now, we pray, the joys in the hearts of your people, as well as their innermost concerns:

• Thanksgiving: A father-in-law’s leukemia is in remission
• Members thankful for upcoming birth of first grandchild
• Family celebrates first visit in months to isolated relative in senior living
• Two express thanks for Zoom Bible Studies
• Six members offer gratitude for church’s help in securing virus vaccine
• Upholding one facing treatment for lymphoma
• Watch care: Young mother in last weeks of pregnancy
• Prayers for all children who are behind academically
• Healing for one with head injury
• Good job openings for two members
• Strength for two members in continued cancer treatment
• Member having knee surgery tomorrow
• All working to address gun violence in our city
• Family members in North Carolina, suffering with Covid
• Healing for young husband with Covid
• Healing mercies for one with painful headaches
• Continued healing: Mother recovering from a stroke
• Family requests prayers: Father nearing death
• Adult children, seeking quality care for elderly mother

O One Who Neither Slumbers Nor Sleeps, may your warm stars burn away those misgivings we are harboring and give us a restful sleep. Attend to all who are dear to us, and hold all your children in the strong arms of Jesus, 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.

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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.

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BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 22, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

O One Who Tends our Souls, your magnificence beams upon us each day, but in spite of your gifts of wonder, we confess that we often set our minds, not on divine things, but on human things.  We scramble for the paper goods and seize every dairy item in sight at the grocer’s when someone whispers “snow!”  And should we get wind of an increase in gas prices, we race to join the line up at the pumps.  Anxiety is contagious, and when we catch that fever of uneasiness, we grab far more than we need, doubting your loving provision.  Forgive us for allowing ourselves to become tangled again in that knot of fear that has plagued us all our lives.  Teach us to trust during this season, Holy One, and write the apostle’s words upon our hearts: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

O Divine Parent, surely we are an embarrassment to you when we shrink from living as your disciples. And given the many times we have wounded you, it is astonishing that you put up with us at all.  Particularly we recall these personal slights we have inflicted upon you and upon others this day: . . . . . . . . . . We humbly open ourselves to your forgiveness, trusting that you might show us how to claim that power of which the apostle speaks.

These have been days of unease for many of your people, Comforting God, and those trapped by riveting troubles. Be with all those who are trying to recover from deadly winter storms and send willing hands to assist with reconstruction. Give hope to the afflicted, we pray, that they may not give in to despair.  You hear the cries of all whose hearts are unsettled, who bear pain of body, mind and spirit.  Energize our own community that we might bring the evil assaults on our young people to an end. Touch each one, we pray, whose names we now whisper  . . . . . . . . . . . . And also attend to these requests that spring from the souls of our church members:

• Thanksgiving for prayers: Second chemo treatment completed
• One offers gratitude for an unexpected financial gift
• Family celebrates the birth of healthy baby today
• Prayers appreciated: Young mother’s surgery went well
• Sister-in-law’s surgery was successful Friday, grateful for prayers
• Six express thanks for church’s help with vaccinations
• Pray for countless children who are behind academically
• Guidance for second grader with learning difficulties
• Healing: Brother and wife suffering with Covid
• Healing for young husband with Covid
• Guidance for mother concerning her son’s health
• Those struggling with recent bereavements
• Continued healing: Mother recovering from a stroke
• Grieving family whose newborn lived only a few days
• Families devastated by shooting deaths in our city
• Prayers for one in radiation treatment
• Comfort and guidance for adult children seeking ways to best care for their elderly mother
• Prayers for a job opening for a professional man
• Healing for a young grandson
• Resolving gun violence in Knoxville
• Pray for our educators and students at all levels

O Breath Within Our Breath, quiet our souls in the evening hours as we take our rest in your enduring love. Meet our worries and our fears at that mysterious point in the night when your grace somehow blossoms into blessing. All these prayers and petitions we leave with you, in the name of our Redeemer, who taught us to pray in this way:

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.

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