Weekly Prayer – July 14

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of July 11, 2021

Written by Rev. Tim Best

Gracious and Merciful God, you have indeed blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven. We confess our tendency to grasp for more, while discarding the abundance which you have given us. Make us mindful of the many ways in which we are blessed and through which we are called to be a blessing to all those around us.

In a world that can often appear to be ruled by forces that divide, depress, and isolate, you, O God, have chosen us in Christ to enter into your presence. We pray that we might be a sign of your presence in the world. We pray for our youth who have gone out into our community this week and have partnered with our neighbors to make a difference in our city. We also pray for the children who have gathered to learn to sing your praises during children’s choir camp. Fill the youth, children, and their adult leaders with the certain knowledge of your abiding love, and give them energy for their labors.

God, you have destined us to be adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. We rejoice that have been called and claimed as children and heirs; give us patient humility to recognize that Jesus’ love is a gift we are called to share. Guide us to reach out in love to those who are alone, to those who we do not understand, and to those we would see as enemies. Our inclusion into God’s family is pure gift, help us to see all others as those who have also been invited into fellowship with God.

And within the fellowship of Church Street UMC, we lift up our praises and our concerns, believing that you will continue to hear us, to love us, and to heal us:

Thanksgivings:

  • Family appreciates prayers for ill wife, much improved
  • Thanksgiving: Husband’s injury will not require surgery
  • Celebration of a young son’s baptism last Sunday
  • Gratitude: Husband’s cancer scans were all clear
  • Gratitude: Grandson has completed lymphoma treatments
  • Family thankful for church member’s visit to an ill husband
  • One grateful for safe travel during storms
  • Sustaining grace for a bereaved family
  • God’s hand in bringing about a change of heart
  • Parents offer gratitude for a daughter’s wedding
  • Adult son’s heart tests were clear

Concerns:

  • Safety and guidance for sisters assisting ill relatives in California
  • Comfort and peace for a husband/father nearing death
  • Healing grace for a mother with bone cancer
  • Prayers for reparation of a broken relationship
  • A daughter and son-in-law with Covid and their family
  • Continued prayers for brother with cancer
  • Longtime friend with advanced liver and lung cancer
  • Healing relationships within a family
  • Prayers for one undergoing knee surgery on the 19th
  • Healing mercies for member having neck surgery next week
  • Continued healing for one in radiation treatment
  • Diagnosis for young niece experiencing seizures
  • Mother with fractured pelvis
  • Healing mercies for member beginning cancer treatment this week
  • Prayers for friend with cancer undergoing bone marrow transplant
  • Physical strength for wife and husband in physical therapy
  • Healing for an ill couple, professional performers

We pray in faith for that day when you will bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth. We pray for those who have died, and for those who grieve. We pray for peace amongst the nations, and for the unity of our community.

Living God, help us so to hear your holy Word that we may truly understand; that, understanding, we may believe, and, believing, we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking your honor and glory in all that we do; through Christ our Lord, 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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Weekly Prayer – June 30

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of June 27, 2021

Written by Rev. Catherine Nance

Almighty God, we call you all-powerful, omnipotent, and yet we look to other powers to restore us. Before we reach out to anything or anyone else, may we acknowledge that you are the power that called forth creation, the power that called us into community; and it was by your power that our Savior Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. What other power would we want flowing towards us?

Gracious God, Mark’s gospel relates two remarkable stories of healing – one a child who seemed to have had everything and one a woman who has lost everything. These show us we have hope for healing within our own lives. We pray for healing in communities where there is despair; from our own Hawkins County as we think about a little girl to families anxiously awaiting news about loved ones in Florida.  We pray for our city as citizens and law enforcement strive to work together that we may all live in peace. Lord, have mercy on all of those who need to hear your words of comfort.

O Christ, we call you healer, the great physician. Our bodies are broken and worn down, we have friends and family who are suffering from disease. You have heard us name them in our hearts. We are so bold to pray for healing, but before we can ask for flesh and bone to be restored, for organs to be renewed, we must confess that our spirits are diseased. Cleanse our spirits, soften our hearts, and open our minds so that your healing power can flow through us to all whom you love, also these, your children at Church Street:

  • Sustaining member having glaucoma procedures
  • Close friend’s mother who is nearing death (100 yrs)
  • Our needy neighbors and all who work for their betterment
  • Parents worried about a son’s addiction, for his healing
  • Member mourning the death of her aunt last week
  • Members mourning the sudden death of their brother
  • Healing for a cherished wife who is hospitalized
  • God’s healing for an alcoholic brother
  • Continued prayers for husband with liver disease
  • Parents who are both suffering major illnesses
  • Blessings for Christian couple married June 30 in Belfast
  • Guidance and direction for troubled teenage nephew
  • Strength for daughter grieving recent family deaths
  • Wife & husband recovering from surgeries
  • God’s continued presence with beloved sister in decline
  • Reparation of a broken relationship
  • Easing of depression and healing for professional singer who is ill
  • Sustaining a sister whose family burdens are heavy
  • Our members in memory care

As you continue your holy work in all our lives, Caring Lord, accept these prayers of gratitude for your power working on our behalf:

  • Prayers appreciated — wife recovering well from colon surgery
  • Family celebrating a new pregnancy — first grandchild
  • Thanksgiving for husband’s recovery from recent illness
  • Appreciation for work of Parish Health Team
  • Thankful for a daughter’s visit from the West Coast
  • Gratitude for God’s mercy during a family’s bereavement
  • Thankful for niece’s safe arrival home from Kosovo
  • Friend celebrating return home following a year’s therapy from invasive surgery
  • Thankful for prayers — hospitalized wife is improving

Your love, your grace, your compassion, O God, bring wholeness. We need wholeness and we long to hear you say to us: “Go in peace.” Give us that grace to truly walk in peace, discarding anger, resentment or smugness. And forgive us, we pray, when we set up barriers that keep people from you. May we be followers, may we be a church willing to make room, to make a way for people to get to you. And ay we all hear the words, “You are healed.”

All these prayers and petitions we lift up in earnest this day, in the name of your Son, that Great Channel of Peace, 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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Weekly Prayer – June 23, 2021

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of June 20, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

God of Tender Heart, we seem to be plagued by the same pitfalls that we confessed to you only days ago! We wonder why our best intentions crumble so quickly. But even as we lament our failures, we affirm our belief in your power to change us. We praise you that you do not give up on us! Send your creating power to mend our ragged relationships; send your redeeming love to save us from our repetitive misdeeds; and send your sustaining spirit to give us courage and strength to be made anew in your image. And as you bring about those changes in our own hearts and lives, perhaps our hurting world might somehow also be changed.

Merciful Master of Our Lives, as we approach you this week, we come as people harboring varied emotions. While some are teeming with joy and excitement, there are others of us whose lives are flooded with sorrow, weariness, confusion, and estrangement. We come in all our differences because we know you are the omnipotent expression of love and because we know you care.  We celebrate the fact that that joy has found many of our brothers and sisters, and ask for new pathways to open for those who are imprisoned by fear.

We remember that when you uttered “Peace, be still!” the raging tempest obeyed, and all was calm. In your own quiet and peaceful way, touch each person in our Church Street family this week, wherever they find themselves, we pray.  Calm our restless souls as we offer these particular prayers living in the hearts of your children:

Gratitudes:

  • Family celebrating a new pregnancy
  • Joys of our successful Vacation Bible School
  • Gratitude for the nurture of loving fathers
  • Radiation treatments are being tolerated well
  • Success of Juneteenth Picnic with our neighbors
  • Happy couple celebrate their first wedding anniversary
  • Thankful for responsive & caring police and social agencies
  • Member healing well following retina surgery
  • Brother in detox program is improving, grateful for prayers
  • Thanksgiving for successful cataract surgery
  • One recovering well from knee replacement

Concerns:

  • Grace for member with a lingering illness
  • Our homeless neighbors who need hope, healing, and purpose
  • Members mourning the sudden death of their brother; safety as they travel for his services this week
  • Healing for a cherished wife who is hospitalized
  • Focus and wisdom for a son preparing for medical exams
  • For God to work in the soul of a son with addiction
  • Healing for wife recovering from colon surgery
  • A sister whose health is in decline, strength for her family members
  • Beloved husband with Parkinson’s
  • Healing mercies for children whose mother died suddenly last week
  • Friend having extensive ENT procedures
  • Reparation of a broken relationship
  • Healing for professional singer’s voice impairment
  • God’s healing hand upon a husband with liver disease
  • Strengthening of a new marriage
  • Sustaining husband and wife recovering from surgeries
  • Cherished husband in memory care
  • Ending of drought in the Western U.S.

O Love Ever Near, we feel your closeness in times of joy, but we are apt to forget you are always beside us in every instance — ready to listen, ready to support and ready to restore. Help us to dedicate a portion of this day, and every day, to commune with you, our Greatest Treasure. We would be wholly yours. And we would be made holy, as was your Son Jesus, 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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Weekly Prayer – June 16

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of June 13, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

We come into your presence, Great Sower of Seeds, seeking your assurance that new growth is still possible within us.  In many ways we have allowed our faith to grow dormant as we focused on our own travails associated with the pandemic.  We indeed cried out loudly to you throughout the year just passed; but we have failed to recognize your hand behind the miracle of the preventive vaccines.  And truly it was your Spirit working within all those courageous ones who risked their own lives to help others in a multitude of ways. Forgive our slowness in acknowledging your silent power of healing and renewal that has never failed us.

Your generous hand ever sprinkles new ideas and new opportunities our way; we admit, however, we often remain on that tired ground we have always traversed. We’ve become so accustomed to our old habits and old patterns of thinking that we prevent your fresh concepts from germinating. O Planter of Newness, help us to conquer our fears and insecurities that we might never again stifle your dreams. Grant that we may so till the soil of our hearts that we would be prepared always to receive the seeds you sow within, and to tend them till they flourish to proclaim our praise and gratitude.

God of Memory, as you have never forgotten us, we give thanks for each of your servants who remembered us, who personally supported us throughout the pandemic, and those who uphold us now, especially . . . . . . . . . .  And in this springtime as we celebrate the growth of our children, and as we honor our high school and college graduates, let us give thanks for those who nurtured our own faith throughout our growing years, especially these . . . . . . . . . We praise you for the constancy of your love and grace that continues throughout the generations, working through each of us in surprising ways to fulfill your purpose.

Receive now, we pray, these recent thanksgivings offered by your friends at Church Street; and be attentive, O Holy One, to each of those who bring their hardships and challenges to you, for you know each one by name:

Gratitudes:

  • Thanksgiving for a successful colon surgery
  • A family visit to VA for a grandson’s graduation
  • Son has been alcohol-free for a month
  • Widow sends thanks to church for arranging her vaccine
  • Gratitude for the work of the Covid Task Force
  • Celebration of lengthy visit with children & grandchildren
  • Regathering of Sunday School classes
  • A mother recuperates at home — successful gall bladder surgery
  • God’s granting focus and safety in a daughter’s sporting events
  • Thanksgiving for unselfish friend who knows just when to call
  • Homebound member offers gratitude for continued contacts by church family

Concerns:

  • Family and friends mourning death of a beloved friend in Christ
  • For God to work in the soul of a son addicted to various substances
  • Recovery for a brother in treatment for addiction
  • Member undergoing radiation treatments
  • Beloved husband dealing with effects of Parkinson’s
  • Sustaining grace for loved one with brain tumor
  • Good friend having extensive ENT tests and surgeries
  • Grieving parent whose son died tragically on Saturday
  • Restoration of a longtime relationship
  • Healing of painful back malady that prevents member from working
  • God’s healing hand upon a husband with liver disease
  • Strengthening of a new marriage
  • Grandson in treatment for leukemia
  • Forgiveness to be at work within a family
  • Healing for husband with debilitating illness
  • Member suffering severe depression
  • Sustaining husband and wife recovering from surgeries
  • Wisdom and guidance for our incoming bishop

Lord of the Harvest, as your Son taught us, we believe there will be a season when all your servants will be gathered into that abundant land where you dwell. Cultivate our faith in your tender mercy, we pray, that we might stay the course in this life, becoming strong, sturdy, and worthy to abide in your Kingdom of Grace.  All these prayers and petitions we lift up to your open heart, offering the words Jesus gave us:

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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Weekly Prayer – June 2

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 30, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

O Triune God: Creator, Christ, and Spirit, we do not understand your love for us, nor do we fully understand how you move in our world and in our lives.  We can only bow to the mystery of your affection and faithfulness; indeed, your abiding presence is our greatest treasure! When we falter and fail, it is your mercy that redeems us. When daunted by our trials, it is your grace that sustains us. And when we doubt our own abilities, it is your holy breath that fills us with boldness and courage to serve as you have asked.  “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”

Your generosity abounds, O Friend of Life, and we are recipients of abundance; yet why is it that we demand more and more? We deplete our natural resources by taking more than we need; we reduce forest and field to wasteland, disregarding important habitats of wild creatures; we squander the inborn splendor of your earth in our quest for goods and manufactured entertainment.  Prick our collective conscience, O Framer of the World, that we might repent of our self-indulgence before we have marred the good earth beyond reparation.  And bless those, we pray, who dedicate their lives to preservation of the unique and sacred home you have made for your people. Give us grace to walk that more gentle and sacred path.

We hear the bitter cries of the hurting across the globe, O Lord, and the sound singes our souls.  For children dying of gun violence, Lord have mercy.  For those bereft in the Middle East, whose lives and homes are shattered by terrorism, Lord have mercy.  For those who have lost everything due to substance abuse, Lord have mercy.  For those tormented ones in India suffering illness and death due to the Covid virus, Lord have mercy. For the brokenness of those whom our own nation has failed, Lord have mercy. Each human life has a name, a face, and a story, and you know each intimately, O Christ. All these, who are beloved of God, we lift up to your care, and also ask that your mercy would surround also these whom you also love, members of our Church Street family:

  • Young couple growing in their marriage relationship
  • Healing: hospitalized member with heart malady
  • An elderly father who is lonely & depressed
  • An ill grandfather, for correct diagnosis
  • Healing for husband with long-term Covid symptoms
  • One seeking reconciliation with her family
  • Safety for traveling church families
  • Healing for a son in detox program
  • For healing of a painful hip injury
  • Brother with mouth malignancy
  • Friend grieving the death of her sister on May 23
  • That families will take advantage of summer “Catch-Up” academics
  • Healing for both husband & wife recovering from recent surgeries
  • Courage for one facing radiation treatment
  • Husband who is failing, strength for his wife who is caregiver
  • Calm and peace for a mother facing extensive surgery
  • Healing for two struggling with serious anemia

We pray in unity, Holy One, because we are people of hope, believing that suffering and death never have the last word.  May our own thanksgivings we now offer remain a sign to our neighbors that our God offers mercy and grace:

  • Gratitude: Kidney surgery successful
  • Mother with advanced cancer was able to see her daughter graduate from high school – her year-long prayer answered
  • Knee surgery successful
  • Thanksgiving for endurance throughout prolonged cancer treatment
  • One grateful for ability to work during chemotherapy
  • Two families thankful for long-awaited vacations
  • Prayers appreciated: knee mobility is improving with PT
  • Gratitude: friends who uphold one in his trials
  • Thankful: elderly father’s continued good health
  • Those working to alleviate inequities & gun violence in our community
  • Couple celebrating their wedding anniversary this week
  • Signs of healing following retina surgery
  • Thanks for prayers: brother’s suspected cancer was benign

All these prayers and petitions we offer today in the name of our Holy Keeper: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:

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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Weekly Prayer – May 26

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 23, 2021

Written by Rev. Catherine Clark Nance

O Holy Spirit of God – we thank you for Pentecost, and in this season, we are privileged to claim and celebrate the birth of your church. But we know your Spirit has been calling us into community from the beginning. Your Spirit, your breath, breathed life into all of creation; and has been made known in the voice of the prophets, calling our communities to exhibit justice and righteousness and compassion.

Your Spirit is revealed to us in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, who welcomed the stranger and told us to love one another. We see the power of your Spirit on Easter morning and as Jesus ascended into heaven. When, O God, have we ever been away from your Spirit? The psalmist declares that you are always present.

Poets and songwriters and mystics and preachers have named you in countless ways: Liberating Spirit, Comforter, Wind and Flame, Spirit of Peace, Sacred Breath, Laughter, Mysterious Dancer, Pure Fountain, Holy Wisdom.

You have given us the gift of language to make sense of our world and to communicate and to draw your people together. Forgive us when our language attempts to contrive or constrain you. Forgive us when we name you in only the way that is comfortable and convenient for us. Forgive us when our language divides and alienates.

It is our prayer, Refining Fire of God, that we would open our ears and hear how you are prompting and leading and restoring us. And as we recall the story of Pentecost and the disciples understanding other languages, we are mindful of all the languages you hear as you listen to your world praying. We know that your Holy Spirit connects us to Palestinian and Israeli families who are grieving; families in Afghanistan are not just foreigners or people far away, but your Spirit enables us to hear the sorrow of parents and to pray for their comfort. Your Reconciling Spirit opens our hearts to all – in any country – who are dying from Covid.

Abiding Spirit, as you remain close to each of your suffering and frightened children, and as you know each one by name, draw near to your friends in the Church Street community who also call upon you in these trying times.  Speak each name, we pray, as you send forth your swirls of healing into their midst:

  • Husband in fifth month of Covid struggles
  • Four church families grieving deaths of loved ones this week
  • Anxious brother awaiting pathology report
  • Relief for one plagued by hip ailment
  • Peace for husband in hospice care
  • Comfort & healing for two in lymphoma treatment
  • Calm and peace for a mother facing extensive surgery
  • Beloved brother suffering from cancer
  • Dear friend recovering from back surgery
  • Continued healing of husband with rare cancer
  • Delivery of two from the pain of depression
  • A cure for two struggling with serious anemia
  • Ongoing healing for two recovering from knee surgery
  • Steady healing of shoulder injury
  • Continued good health for a cherished pet

And to these petitions we add our praises for your mercy and grace:

  • One who expresses renewed joy in living
  • Couple celebrating a new pregnancy
  • Husband thankful for a new job
  • Gratitude: friend recovers from ruptured appendix
  • Grateful for prayers: pregnant cousin is recovering from Covid and her unborn child remains healthy
  • Thankful for baptism of infant son on Sunday
  • Young couple celebrate their recent engagement
  • Gratitude: no cancer found following father’s lung surgery
  • Four families grateful for recent days of vacation
  • Declining numbers of new Covid cases in our area
  • One in PT regaining strength after leg injury
  • Astonishing work of our UMW & mission teams
  • Member thankful for improvement of cancer scans

Continue to open our ears, Spirit of Truth, that we might hear how you desire to shape us, rather than our words shaping how we allow you to fit into our hearts. May your wind and fire cause us to hear you and experience you in new ways. And now we join with other Christians all around the world who offer the prayer our Savior taught us:

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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Weekly Prayer – May 19

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 16, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Let us sing a glad song of gratitude to our God who has given us life and has imbued us with power to change the world.  How amazing is that grace!  The Holy One believes in us!  We now bow in the silence and reflect upon the ways we have felt his sacred movement in our lives in recent times . . . . . . . . . . Take us by the hand each day of this week, Lord, and lead us in those paths you have prepared for us; and may we recognize your empowering Spirit along the way.

Gracious God, receive our prayer.

“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” sang the psalmist.  We do come in your name this evening, Our Forever Companion, knowing you see us as we are, and that we are cherished in your sight.  We remember the gentleness with which you steered us through this past year’s turmoil and dissension. In our doubts, fears, and grief, you were working silently to restore our hope.

Gracious God, receive our prayer.

Yes, we are indeed richly blessed and we praise the God from whom all blessings flow.  Receive now, we pray, these specific expressions of gratitude brought by your people at Church Street; and also shine your light of gentle grace upon those who render their deep personal concerns:

Joys

  • Family celebrates new grandbaby, born May 14
  • Thanksgiving for visit with first grandchild
  • Grateful for prayers: heart procedure successful
  • One celebrating success of risky back surgery
  • Thankful for more in-person church gatherings
  • Prayers appreciated: member released from hospital
  • Member offers thanks for her steady recovery from a stroke
  • Gratitude: multiple mission projects completed on Sat
  • A friend’s successful knee replacement on the 17th

Concerns

  • Healing for young pregnant cousin very ill with Covid
  • Relief for one suffering great hip & leg pain
  • Group seeking earnest discernment
  • Calm and peace for one facing extensive surgery
  • Beloved brother suffering from cancer
  • Healing of friend in CO in rehab center
  • Recovery for extremely ill husband in hospital
  • Continued healing for husband in rehab facility
  • Vaccine availability for India overwhelmed by virus
  • Sustaining dear grandson in treatment for lymphoma
  • Continued improvement: husband with rare cancer
  • That two in deep depression may be delivered from their pain
  • Healing for grieving families & pained members of the Austin-East community who seek change
  • Healing for member with lymphoma
  • Sustaining grace for member struggling with anemia
  • Grace & comfort for husband in hospice care at home
  • Continued recovery for one in therapy for injured leg
  • Prayers that shoulder injury will not require surgery
  • Easing of painful knee injury

Gracious God, receive our prayer.

We confess, Patient One, that the magnet of our daily affairs has pulled us away from our best intentions.  Especially our weakness was most pronounced in these instances which we remember with regret: . . . . . . . . . . Buttress us, that we might withstand the tug of the world and remain steady in our purpose to live out the promises we make in Christ’s name.

And as you feed us your food of compassion each and every day, you are showing us how to open our hands to share healing with those whose lives are broken, to offer hope to the desperate, to deliver companionship to the lonely, to proclaim your good news. All these efforts we dedicate to you in Christ’s name, our Teacher and Example 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.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – May 12

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 9, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

You are our Risen Lord, and in these days of Eastertide we reflect upon your glorious Ascension.  As you were taken up unto the heavens, your followers were confused; and we in our era confess that we overlook the significance of your extraordinary ascent. We cherish our memory of those days when you walked the dusty byways with your friends, teaching them along the way, close enough to comfort and support. These reflections remind us that you are present with us in the ordinariness of our days. But your mission was not solely for that one devoted community of ages past, nor for our own community today. Your return to the Father solidified your holy union forever, declaring your omnipresence throughout the universe. As the world has seen and known you, so have all seen and known the Father. Thanks be to God!

Lord in your mercy, receive our humble prayer.

O God of Mystery, we picture Christ rising among luminous clouds, his arms outstretched, demonstrating that his love permeates all the world.  And that which Christ loves, we are called to embrace. Such a command demands our all, Lord, for how near impossible it is to pray for those who wish us harm, to show grace and forgiveness to those enemy nations who seek our downfall.  You have laid down a standard, Lord, that none but the most trusting can follow.  Strengthen our own trust, we pray, that we might also practice your radical, forgiving love.

Lord in your mercy, receive our humble prayer.

O Friend of All, we are mindful of our own human weakness, and we lean upon your mercy and grace to encourage all who are broken in mind, body, or spirit. The psalmist tells us that “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Help us remember that all that harms us will eventually turn to ashes and that one day you will set things right. Initiate that new beginning for those who call out in your name, particularly those who are in deep mourning, those suffering in places where the Covid death toll rises, those who have lost their homes through disaster or violence, those whose memory has deserted them; and also touch each of these Church Street friends who bring before you their own needs and their thanksgivings:

Joys

  • Back pain is decreasing following recent surgery
  • Mother in assisted living most happy with arrangement
  • Thanksgiving for our valiant high school seniors
  • Appreciation for home help for challenged son
  • Prayers appreciated: cousin’s triple heart by-pass successful
  • Grateful that brother with Covid released from hospital
  • Gratitude: member’s knee surgery went smoothly
  • One with cancer celebrates a week of renewed energy
  • Prayers upheld brother-in-law during his successful May 7 surgery

Concerns

  • Prayers for member having heart procedure May 12
  • Adult son grieving death of his mother in New Delhi
  • Vaccine availability for people of India overwhelmed by virus
  • Continued prayers for husband recovering from rare cancer
  • That two in deep depression may be delivered from their pain
  • Prayers for Hispanic friend with multiple needs
  • Healing for families who have lost beloved family members due to gun violence in the Austin-East community
  • Healing for member recovering from back surgery
  • Grace & comfort for husband in hospice care at home
  • Prayers for loved ones living in throes of dementia
  • Continued recovery for one in therapy for injured leg
  • Prayers that shoulder injury will not require surgery
  • Full Covid recovery for single mother of two

God of our Salvation, we feel you working through your Risen and Ascended Son, showering us with new courage and endurance to face the challenges that have entered our lives. Thanksgiving fills our souls when we remember that we are held fast and forever in your grasp, and we now offer that prayer that has sustained us throughout the ages:

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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Weekly Prayer – May 5

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 2, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

You ask us, Lord, to abide in you, and we have pledged to do so. Yours is such an open and gracious invitation, but in our narcissistic society, our hearts are easily tempted to take shelter in unhealthy places, spending hours in ways that do not nourish our spirits. Forgive us, we pray, for focusing on the transient, for settling for second-best, when we could be daily enriched by your goodness. Call us home again, Dear Friend. Brush off the doormat that bids us welcome, and we will enter your abode where we shall be fed with trust and kindness. Make us resolute in soul, we pray, that we might never wander again.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Source of Sustenance, in our roving, we confess the seeds you have planted in us have returned a meager harvest; but we thank you that you haven’t given up on us. As the Master Gardener, take those dormant kernels, long neglected and dissipated, tend them with your patient hand, and provide an environment of prosperity. We would yield savory and abundant crops for the kingdom in the season of life which we are given. May grace and peace and mercy and forgiveness be the fruits we bear, and may we share them generously in your Name.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Vine of True Life, this week spring rains have poured forth torrents of your life-giving waters, assuring us of your constant care for all creation. As you replenish and sustain your good earth, replenish us with a spirit of thanksgiving, for our wells are full to overflowing with gifts from your benevolent hand. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, may Jesus Christ be praised!
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We are indebted to you, O Divine One, for sending us the Holy Spirit to help us in our yearning, for we truly do not know how to pray. We remain mystified by the suffering and pain that thrive throughout our planet and we long to be part of its healing. Send your soothing Spirit to our brothers and sisters in every region who are oppressed, misunderstood, lonely, hungry, and forgotten; and as each soul is dear to you, receive these particular petitions and thanksgivings offered by your followers at Church Street:
Joys
  • One appreciates completion of another round of chemo
  • Gratitude: Knee replacement surgery successful
  • Member recovering well from heart surgery
  • Member celebrates birth of twins: grand-niece & grand-nephew
  • Encouraging news of dear friend healing from Covid
  • Member celebrates a new living arrangement
  • Back surgery is bringing healing for member
  • Family thankful for church support during a bereavement
  • Gratitude: mother with leukemia much improved
  • Thankful: sister has been discharged from rehab facility
Concerns
  • Cousin recovering from triple by-pass surgery
  • Healing for mother & brother in New Delhi struggling with Covid
  • Relief for the people of India suffering from virus
  • Lift up member, new resident in assisted living
  • Cherished husband, healing of leg injury
  • Healing prayers: one undergoing knee surgery May 6
  • Encouragement for one in deep depression
  • Continued relief for one suffering from asthma
  • For brother-in-law’s successful heart surgery May 7
  • Steady healing for member with fractured femur
  • Patience & healing of painful shoulder injury
  • Comfort & safe travels for bereaved member
  • Full Covid recovery for single mother of two
  • Cherished aging father in assisted living
  • New hope for a husband who is discouraged
  • Healing for two afflicted with lymphoma
As ones aware of our weakness, yet trusting that you are our strength; as those harboring questions, yet knowing that you hold all answers, we lift up all our prayers to you in the name 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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Weekly Prayer – April 28

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of April 25, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Lord of Change, you show us the sacred in everything, even in the simple occurrences in our lives. As you are turning over the season, we feel the warmth of the spring sun, behold the fresh buds and green sprigs, and hear the early birdsong and chattering squirrels. Turn our souls over, too, we pray, that we might unearth the long buried pure intentions once rooted in our hearts. Direct us toward ways in which we might let the old fall away — the old ideas, the obsolete models, and our resistance to change. Transformation often comes with pain, but you, O God of New Beginnings, will instill us with courage to take our first wobbly steps down that rough road of renewal. Hear us, Lord, as we especially seek your transformation in these personal areas: . . . . . . . . . .
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Good Shepherd, we, like sheep, are often myopic, wandering from one situation to another, frightened and disoriented, battered by grievous news of widespread illness and disaster, by blatant acts of violence and destruction, by racial misunderstandings and divisions, by knowledge of innocents who are undeserving of pain and death. Sometimes the weight of the world becomes too much for us to bear and our hearts remain broken. We recall the psalmist who knew you as the Good Shepherd; he never promised that all our pain and woes would cease. Rather, he assured us that you would comfort us with your rod and your staff. Comfort, O comfort your people, Lord, for we are worn and weary. Bring your sheep into your fold once again, that we might learn your gentle ways and follow you to pastures of healing.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

O Keeper, you are often looking out for us, even when we so carelessly graze in dangerous pastures. We pray we do not stray too far from the voice that calls out to us across the way. We know your voice, just as you know ours, so shelter us from all that threatens. And so, with confident hearts, we lay before you these prayers on behalf of our church family:

Joys
-Gratitude: member recovering steadily from surgery
-Blessing of Sunday’s confirmations and baptisms
-Thanksgiving: local availability of virus vaccines
-Appreciation for faithfulness of our Stephen Ministers
-One thankful that cancer meds seem to be working
-Gratitude that heart cath procedure went smoothly
-All who work to help solve violence in our neighborhood

Concerns
-Comfort for family mourning death of cherished husband
-Easing of back pain for one who suffers greatly
-Mother & brother in New Delhi afflicted with Covid
-Steady healing for member with fractured femur
-Patience & healing of painful shoulder injury
-Beloved niece in Iowa recovering from cancer surgery; & guidance for family members & medical personnel supporting her
-Prayers that mentor may recover from Covid
-Covid relief for all suffering in India
-Smooth transition for family moving to another state next week
-Healing touch of God for one in depression
-Easing of anger & tension between neighbors
-All mourning death of brother last Saturday
-God’s strength & courage for two struggling young women
-Healing for two afflicted with lymphoma

We thank you for putting in our hearts a desire to know you more fully, a desire to be more closely bonded to your Son, and a desire to be a better people. Watch over us this week, we may follow the lead of our great Shepherd of the Sheep, 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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