Evening Prayer – January 13

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

January 13, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast!
Let us all in thee inherit; let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be,
End of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.
(UMH 384)

Loving Spirit, we know that you weep when your people are deeply divided, at war with each other and within themselves; your tears fall when voices of hatred and disrespect breed instability. It seems that violence is buried deep in our bones and even makes its home in the little grey cells of our minds. Why else would we be so quick to harm and so slow to bring healing? Forgive us for failing you and one another. May our own tears join with yours until they flow into your great stream of justice and mercy. Take away out bent to sinning, we pray, and set our hearts at liberty.

God of the Starry Silence, the daylight hours whisper their goodbyes. They have been your sacred gift to us, as is this lengthening span of darkness.  Let us reflect upon the unmerited joys that you have sent our way:  . . . . . . . . . .  And grant that the good we may have done in the earlier hours give witness to your own generosity emerging through us, your human vessels. Even in the ebony hours, you gaze clearly through the window of our souls. With each passing night, we pray you might observe growing integrity, humility, and faith within.

And despite the thinness of our faith, we entrust to you all those persons and situations that are uppermost in our hearts, especially . . . . . . . . . . And in this interval of silence, we also share both the celebrations and the worries of our church family, knowing your loving Spirit is only a breath away:

  • Prayers appreciated: Friend released from hospital
  • Gratitude: Recovery from surgery has gone well
  • Thanksgiving: One’s depression has lifted
  • Member grateful – released from rehab
  • One offers thanks for continued healing from pneumonia & virus
  • For help to arrive: Sister overwhelmed with caregiving
  • Prayers for wife facing serious surgery and for worried family
  • Peaceful resolution to our nation’s bitter divisions
  • That holy wisdom may guide our country’s leaders
  • Co-worker who died from virus and his family
  • Healing -husband seriously ill with Covid
  • Courage for one beginning chemo
  • Three children grieving the death of their mother
  • Friend recovering from serious car wreck
  • Healing for teenage granddaughter with Covid
  • Family grieving sudden death of father
  • A father depressed due to isolation
  • Two healing from serious heart conditions
  • For new meds to slow the growth of one’s cancer
  • Courage and strength for one facing major surgery Friday
  • Healing for one enduring cancer treatments
  • For new employment: Young mother stunned by her layoff

Alpha and Omega, into your hands we commend ourselves, for you created and redeemed us. This night, may your grace enter every troubled breast, giving peace and rest. And tomorrow may we rise to walk that straight path you will be fashioning for us as we sleep. We ask all these things in the name of our Savior, who bears the love that never fails and 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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Evening Prayer – January 6

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

January 6, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Thus says the Lord:
Stand at the crossroads, and look,
    and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way lies; and walk in it,
    and find rest for your souls.

(Jeremiah 6:16)

O Holy Light That Shines Even in the Darkness, hold your lantern high, we pray, that your mighty beam will shine upon those who walk bruised, burdened, and blinded through the our broken world.  Our pain is deep and we question the unease, the uncertainty, the unknown swirling around us.  Our eyes fill with tears when we view the rioting and bloodshed smeared across our computer and television screens this very eve.  Surely you weep with us, as you witness our nation, most blessed of all nations, responding to our disagreements with violence.

O Restorer of Peace, we too stand at the crossroads as did your people in the prophet’s time.   In all our unrest, help us remember that our lives are forever intertwined. Despite your steady call for peace, we confess we are not harbingers of harmony ourselves.  Too often we have allowed our egos and willful emotions to rule the day.  Save us from ourselves, O Lord, removing bitterness within, that we may again be known as ones who choose the good way and walk in it, for it is the same road traveled by the Prince of Peace.

With you, O Holy One, all things are possible.  And so we ask you to calm the discord so prevalent our Capitol.  Where there is woundedness, bring healing; where there is ruin, bring restoration; and where there is malice, bring amity. In doing so, you will be reminding us that we are your people and you are our God.

We depend upon your watchfulness, your forgiveness, and your steadfastness to see us through all our trials, and we humbly offer our gratitude. The light of your grace is made known through these joys that are shared by your friends at Church Street.  May that same grace work within these personal situations most recently expressed by our church family:

  • Family celebrates nephew’s return home after a 3-month stay in hospital with Covid
  • Member thankful her business is recovering
  • Couple eagerly await a new baby
  • Thanksgiving: One healing well from knee surgery
  • Family grateful that mother has moved from hospital to rehab
  • Pray for God’s presence with one having surgery tomorrow
  • Rest and recovery for one with heart condition
  • Healing for friend in her 7th week of hospitalization with covid
  • Healing for daughter with recurrence of cancer
  • Comfort for family whose mother died today
  • For rapid distribution of vaccine for healthcare workers and the elderly
  • Husband continuing recovery from serious heart ailment
  • Strength for member coping with chemo side effects
  • Prayers for educators and students this first week of school
  • Courage and strength for one beginning chemo on Friday
  • God’s presence with one whose medical tests were disappointing
  • For chemo to further shrink pancreatic tumor

Remind us, Good Lord, that your love bridges any distance; and even in the most remote valley of fear, our cries reach the ears of your heart. So quiet our spirits this night as we slumber in the arms of your grace, for we know Heaven’s Star watches over us and Jesus prays with 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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Evening Prayer – January 5

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

January 5, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim his handiwork!

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal his truth.

This unspeakably beautiful evening, we gaze at the heavens, as did the psalmist of long ago. What a mysterious twinkling umbrella you have placed above us, Great Designer, giving us your peace in the silent movement of the stars and planets. Our day has been too crowded with both the urgent and the mundane, still you have slipped in here and there, so serenely we didn’t notice.  But now under the gray-blue sky, we remember the ways in which your grace found us . . . . . . . . . .  For each of these points of light, we are profoundly thankful.

Unseen Friend, grant us pardon for not drinking in the love you so freely offered us this day. We stepped aside when we should have acted, we spoke bitter words, we set ourselves before others, we took you for granted, we were blinded by busyness. Bathe us this eve, and cleanse us of our selfish aims, especially . . . . . . . . . . Pierce us this night with the purity of the Bethlehem star, we pray, that a bit of its luster will shine through our actions tomorrow.

O Lord of the Night, there are many concerns we carry with us, for truly, you have created us to be a compassionate people. We lean on you, knowing you will catch us when our loads become too heavy and we stumble in the darkness. We turn over our inmost cares to you, especially . . . . . . . . . . and also these situations that have overtaken your children at Church Street:

  • Family celebrates an infant’s release from hospital
  • Grateful for prayers: One in rehab is now free of addiction
  • Member thankful for prayers: Depression and anxiety have departed
  • Gratitude for prayers: Member is tolerating infusions well
  • One sends gratitude for all who are praying on her behalf
  • Prayers appreciated: Aging parents are finding support
  • Courage for one involved in legal dispute
  • An aunts and an uncle ill in hospital with Covid
  • Comfort for family whose father is in rapid decline
  • Upholding wife facing further medical tests
  • For all vulnerable ones to be vaccinated soon
  • Continued prayers for two recovering from serious heart ailments
  • Healing mercies for hospitalized mother
  • Strength for member enduring chemo side effects
  • Prayers for educators and students this first week of school
  • Courage and strength for one beginning chemo this week
  • Three family members recovering from Covid
  • For chemo to further shrink pancreatic tumor
  • Healing of wife in ICU with Covid

We pray that you accept these words we offer and receive all our prayers for which there are no words. As you wrap us in sleep this night, whisper to us your words of courage, that we may be bolder in bearing the story of your love through our words and deeds. We trust in the truth of the Light of the World, and pray as he 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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Prayer for Today – November 26

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 26, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

O One Who Calls Forth the Dawn, rise within us today. You streak the sky with hues of mauve and lavender, blue and gold, announcing yourself as the Master of the Universe.  How can we overlook your arrival when just outside our door you have planted astonishing messages of hope: each twig and leaf, each blade of grass, each stone and shrub shine with your effervescent glory. All these you send to remind us that now is the time to set aside our fears and doubts, our failures and misdeeds. All creation is made alive and new each morning through your vibrant love. Truly this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

O Maker Worthy of Celebration, a thousand thoughts of gratitude dance in our heads and we wonder: “How shall we name all your mercies?” Shall we begin at our birth, offering thanks for those who nurtured us out of the goodness of their hearts? Or perhaps we might recall those who taught us to read and write, to sing, who helped us find our own gifts, those who modeled sincerity and grace, who stood by us even when our decisions were poor. Moreover, we could praise you for the unspeakable wonders of creation, for the privilege of living in this country, the honor of voting, your sustaining hand that guided us throughout the decades. And beyond these are your ceaseless love, endless grace and unmerited forgiveness that have marked our days. Ah, even our calculators cannot quantify those infinite favors!  Instead, we shall celebrate your measureless grace by dancing to the tune of the wind today, by embracing the world, and by bowing to the Holy Mystery that gave us life itself.

O God Who Opens Wide the Door, this very day you call out to all your children. “Come and be filled!” you say.  We do pray for those who are unable to respond: for those who are too ill or weak to answer, for those who are so abused their ears remain closed to even the voice of kindest love, for those so blinded by grief that they cannot imagine goodness. You understand their reticence, knowing the bitter twists that characterize every banquet. There will, however, come that time when loss and suffering will dissolve, when all will be secure enough to respond, and all will feast at your table. Until then, we pray, look kindly upon all hurting hearts and hear of these situations mentioned by your people at Church Street:

  • Family thankful that hip surgery yesterday was successful
  • Grateful that a neighbor is supplying my Thanksgiving meal
  • Gratitude that a father with brain tumor has died and no longer suffers
  • Thankful for those continuing their pledges to our church
  • A friend in ICU is regained consciousness after many weeks
  • Healing prayers for a brother on ventilator in Chicago, effects of COVID and for his family members who are all infected
  • Safety and guidance for all educators and staffs
  • Restoration for a husband and father recovering from heart surgery
  • Shrinking of a friend’s pancreatic tumor
  • Family grieving the death of a beloved aunt
  • Son & wife undergoing invitro fertilization, that they may have a healthy child
  • Beloved wife facing a long road to recovery, strength for her husband as primary caregiver and their daughters
  • That the virus vaccine may me made available soon
  • Premature newborn in NICU at UT Medical Center and for mother recovering from surgery
  • Prayers for wisdom, strength and guidance for a couple who are taking immediate custody of a newborn
  • Protection and safety for all who are traveling this holiday
  • A nephew in Nashville who is homeless
  • Healing of a teenage daughter
  • Healing of close friend in ICU with COVID pneumonia
  • Blending of two families as a wedding approaches

You offer us this one day to do your bidding, Lord, and as we move through the hours ahead, may we be firm of foot and quick to open doors for those who feel shut out. Acknowledging our total dependence upon your mercy, we humbly offer all our prayers in the name of Jesus, our Unchanging Friend:

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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Prayer for Today – November 25

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 25, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Morning Star, in the light you have placed within us, we see clearly the world in all its discord, and we are well-acquainted with the disharmony in our personal lives. You have spoken of your bright dream for the world as you would have it:  a place of peace and plenty, a place of health and fitness, a place where equality and justice hold sway, a place where each child is valued and cherished. We whittle away at the discrepancy between your dream and this realm’s stark reality, and we confess that we become discouraged at our slow progress. Help us to focus, however, not only on those shadowy situations we have not rectified, but to give thanks for what has already been accomplished through your strength and blazing purity. You have called us to work for the kingdom you envision, so if we remain faithful to this aim, that is all you ask. It is as the apostle taught: if some of us sow the seed, while others water, then you, O Bright Star, will give the growth.

O God of Tender Heart, when we remember those in our very midst who suffer this day, there is a deep ache inside. We see in the mind of our hearts those who are lonely, but who cannot have visitors. We remember those with dreaded illness, but we dare not sit with them. We picture friends who are in mourning, but we cannot offer personal comfort. We depend upon you, O One Who Suffers With Us, to take each hurting soul under your wings, and give them your comfort until we might safely minister to them ourselves. And Lord, in addition to these, we pray for ourselves, that during this time of contagion, we may become as ardent in our prayers as Jesus.

And we now turn over to you these celebrations of your goodness and also the yearnings of your people at Church Street.  And as we pray for each, may your light of tender grace penetrate every soul:

  • A husband in critical care following a fall and brain surgery has regained consciousness – family and medical teams grateful for prayers
  • Family celebrates the birth of a healthy baby boy
  • Thanksgiving for a very successful UMW bake sale
  • Thankful: A son with kidney stone is home from hospital
  • Prayers appreciated: Knee surgery went very well yesterday
  • Healing prayers for a brother on ventilator in Chicago, effects of COVID and for his family members who are all infected
  • Comfort for family whose father died yesterday of COVID
  • Prayers for a Christian friend having surgery early today
  • Solace for family mourning death of their mother
  • Prayers for peace and protection for a mother & special friends
  • Prayers for a daughter’s health and happiness for family
  • Protection and safety for all who are traveling this holiday
  • A nephew in Nashville who is homeless
  • Healing of a teenage daughter
  • Healing of close friend in ICU with COVID pneumonia
  • Blending of two families as a wedding approaches
  • Healing prayers for husband recovering from heart surgery
  • Strength for one caring for family member in ill health
  • All medical workers and all ill with COVID
  • Continued prayer: that a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor, preparing him for surgery

Bless all your children everywhere who bow in prayer this day. May our collective prayers become one blanket of blessing covering our universe. And underneath its holy warmth, help us to breathe calmly and take our rest in peace, knowing that we serve a God who neither slumbers nor sleeps. All these things we ask for Christ’s sake:

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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Prayer for Today – November 23

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 23, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep,

 so I will seek out my sheep.  I will rescue them from all the places to which they

have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. Ezekiel 34:11-12

O Pursuing One, yes, we have wandered away from the hand that feeds and nurtures us. We have strayed, searching for contentment in more interesting places, in baubles that eventually lose their sparkle. We have allowed your voice to be muffled by the many pundits hawking their earthly brand of wisdom through self-help volumes. We felt this time we could make it on our own, but again we find ourselves trapped in a bottomless ravine of loneliness. In our hearts, we know to whom we belong and believe that you will not abandon your search until you locate each of your roving charges. Come quickly, Tender Guardian, for we long for your presence, we long for home.

Good Shepherd, we pray for all who have been elected to public office during this autumn of discontent. As they soon pledge their vows of loyalty and enter service in their various capacities, may they turn to you for their guidance. Lead them, we pray, in paths of worthy goals, in pursuing holy wisdom, in practicing discernment through communion with you.  And ardently we pray that politicians will move beyond partisanship toward collaboration in seeking out the truth, and in working for the highest good, not for just a select few, but for all people. As your beneficent hand has greatly blessed our land, may ours be known as a country that cares, as a beacon of blessing to your world which hungers and thirsts for hope.

Jesus, we know you as the Shepherd of the Sheep who recognizes each voice, as if there were only one of us. We are touched by your attentiveness, though we confess that much of what we share with you stems from the recurrent ramblings of our troubled hearts. Silently you allow us to bewail our predicaments and our dashed hopes as long as we desire.  Forgive us, we pray, when we forget to acknowledge those doors you continue to open for us; hear us now as we offer praise for your movement in our lives:  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   And in your mercy, receive both these praises and appeals on behalf of our church family:

  • Prayers appreciated: One’s PET scan results excellent
  • Grateful: Mother’s surgery went well on Friday
  • Gratitude: Wife returned safely from Mayo Clinic
  • Thankful that eye procedure was successful
  • Thankful that a grandson is healed of COVID-19
  • A pathology report showed no malignancy
  • Gratitude: Husband is home following heart surgery
  • Prayers for a daughter’s health, sufficient food and happiness for family
  • Prayers for husband having a cardiac conversion today
  • Healing prayers: Parents and grandparents in ICU
  • Daughter, grandchildren, and all children affected by the virus
  • Strength for one caring for former husband in ill health
  • Continued prayer: That a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor, preparing him for surgery
  • Faithful Christian with cancer, in ICU
  • Reconciling a family conflict
  • Safety for all healthcare workers who serve at great risks
  • Beloved husband in hospice care, wife who is grieving
  • Strength for stressed brother caring for his wife who has dementia
  • Prayers that our community will heed public health guidelines
  • Friends and family members unable to visit loved ones in isolation

Ours is not to know all things, even concerning the workings of your healing mercies.  Rather, it may be sufficient to know that every prayer uttered is worthy of your grace and is held in sacred trust in that holy realm.

Lord of Love, with all our roving through the years, we have seen you as Christ, traversing every trail to find us, reaching down to free us from the brambles, and returning us to your safe dwelling. And what would gladden your heart most of all? To see us following your example, seeking out others who are scattered on those days of clouds and thick darkness, and returning them to your fold. Strengthen us to do just that, we pray, for we wish to make you happy.

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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Prayer for Today – November 19

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 19 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Voice of Calm, we enter your presence, as you long ago whispered for us to draw near. You tenderly hollowed out that cavern within us that yearns for communion with the Holy. Much is taking place beyond that veil of knowing, for your Spirit works in ways and in places of which we have never heard. Fill that empty space you created inside us, we pray, for it is just large enough for that presence for which we thirst. We shall rest now in silence and let you touch whatever it is within us that needs attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For your radical love that accepts us, for your amazing grace that replenishes us, and for your covenant blessing which binds us to you, we are grateful and humbled.

Accompany each one who travels with heavy sorrows this day, O Friend of the Falling, as many stumble through the dark expanse of pain. As Jesus knew the sharp edges of loss, he knows how our world struggles with the penetrating wounds inflicted by disease, and particularly by the present pandemic. We sense you working through science and technology to bring us the promised vaccine; so gift us also, O Lord, with a bit more patience as we endure. And when we feel ourselves wavering under the weight of the virus or the grief that accompanies it, set us aright, that we might boldly walk with the courage of Jesus.

So many cry out to you from far and wide, but we know that through your gracious mystery, you attend to each of us individually. With that confidence, believing that our pain is your pain, our joys are your joys, we offer the praises and concerns of your people of Church Street:

  • Prayers appreciated: Young grandson in D.C. much improved
  • Gratitude for our choir and musicians whose music lifts our spirits
  • One is thankful for new employment
  • Appreciation for all healthcare workers who serve faithfully; please pray for their protection
  • Pray for a wife having further consultations at the Mayo Clinic today
  • Peace for faithful member awaiting PET scan results today
  • Beloved wife awaiting pathology report on Friday
  • Full recovery for husband at Vanderbilt following heart surgery
  • That a mother’s surgery in South Carolina will go well today
  • Complete healing for one recovering from eye surgery
  • Prayers for one undergoing an eye surgery today
  • Prayer that a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor so it can be surgically removed
  • Strength for stressed brother caring for his wife who has dementia
  • Healing of family members ill with COVID: Mother-in-law, father, daughter and her two children, teenage daughter, sister-in-law, mother, grandson, and granddaughter; peace and reassurance for family members giving care
  • Solace for grieving family in the death of beloved wife and mother
  • Prayers that our community will heed public health guidelines
  • Friends and family members unable to visit loved ones in isolation
  • Calm and reassurance for couple planning a wedding
  • Prayers for all families receiving Thanksgiving baskets on Saturday
  • Guidance for weary caregiver; continued healing for her husband
  • Faithful Christian friend in ICU with progressive cancer

Thank you, Blessed One, for receiving us just as we are, for keeping your candle burning through the wee hours, and for leaving your door ajar, just in case we cry out in the night. How blessed we are to be counted among those multitudes who call you Father and who now join us in offering the prayer of you Son:

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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Prayer for Today – November 18

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 18 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.  From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint.  Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you are my refuge, a strong tower of strength.  Let me abide in your tent forever under the shelter of your wings. Psalm 61:1-4

Highest Hope of the Weak, we call to you when our hearts are faint. We don’t want to believe that hatred and fear have power in our nation, but we have heard the testimonies and we have seen for ourselves how these bitter forces have already rooted themselves in too many places. Don’t let the spirit of discontent take root in our souls, we pray; for the heart that seeks to separate is the heart that does not love. Help us to overcome that downward tug by becoming a force for love. Strengthen us to live out a kind of love that makes us stand up on a high rock, crying out for the cause of peace, justice, and reconciliation, as did Jesus.

O Promised Rest, your love has brought us this far, and by your grace, we have been blessed throughout the years, celebrating joys and enduring the sorrows of this life. And as we consider ourselves survivors, we resist admitting that we are also bone-tired.  Our sense of responsibility and our need to control have gotten out of hand, resulting in our adding work hours to our already crowded days, while subtracting time to rest, reflect, and cherish your good gifts. The pandemic has whittled away our confidence and we are frayed around the edges. So receive us into your loving arms that we might receive that promised rest for the weary. Let us kneel at your feet and take our ease. Let us leave our burdens there, knowing you will manage them until we are once again refreshed and ready to carry on.

Of course, Prescient Lord, you know our needs before we even speak them, but still you want us to turn to you as our trusted confidant. And somehow, as we give voice to our longings, we receive a sense that our pleas have entered the sacred realm of heaven, where even the saints are praying for us. No prayer is ever wasted, and in that belief, we bare our souls before you, sharing our brightest joys, our earnest hopes and our gripping losses. . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . .  In your mercy, gather these and all the prayers of the Church Street family which we now whisper in the name of Christ:

  • Gratitude: A brother is home from hospital, but pray for full healing
  • Prayers appreciated: A teenager is moving toward healing
  • Thanksgiving: Retinal surgery was successful
  • Family celebrates the news of a much-desired pregnancy
  • Gratitude that a mother is recovering well from virus at home
  • Pray for a wife having further consultations at the Mayo Clinic on Thursday
  • Peace for faithful member awaiting PET scan results this week
  • Prayers for young family of four in isolation due to virus exposure
  • Full recovery for husband from risky heart surgery
  • A door to open for a struggling woman in need of a job, and for insurance to approve an important medical procedure
  • Refugee children, that they may be released and reunited with families
  • Prayers for resolution of conflicts within two families
  • Strength for stressed brother caring for his wife who has dementia
  • Lift up a very ill sister-in-law who remains in ICU with COVID
  • Continued healing for teenage daughter and an ill brother
  • Comfort for husband and entire family: young wife died last week
  • Prayers that a lonely daughter will find friends and companionship
  • Healing for an elderly father hospitalized with COVID
  • Guidance for weary caregiver; continued healing for her husband
  • Healing from virus: Young grandson and a young granddaughter
  • Prayers that a daughter finds the work God wants her to undertake
  • Faithful Christian friend in ICU with progressive cancer

We leave these prayers in your tender care. And if it isn’t too much to ask, grant that we may live lives so close to your Son’s that Jesus’ story will be our story too; and that we may also abide in your tent forever, under the safe shelter of your wings:

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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Prayer for Today – November 17

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 17, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Creating God, as your Spirit moved over the chaos to give light and life to our world, send that same spirit around and through us today to awaken what has withered within. We confess that we move as automatons amid the hours, giving only a rare nod to the glory that you have placed so near. Leaves smile and sparkle, birds offer you praise, supple moss softens the footpath, pansies bow their heads as the wind calls your name. Awaken us from our stupor! Help us relinquish our dreams of another life, for in so many ways, we are already living the dream.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Noble Giver, we confess that we place our trust in passing trends, in the false idols of wealth and fame.  Worldly glory and acclaim are tenuous.  We know this, but we confess that envy seeps into our spirits far too often.  We note what others possess and witness the freedom their affluence offers them.  Remind us that prestige and prosperity do not move us closer to your side; teach us to be content with what we have, for we have more than enough.  Forgive our foolish wanderings, we pray, and help us cling to Christ, who works through your grace to meet all our needs.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Enduring One, we who abide in your fold admit that we are shaken by the suffering so near at hand.  Before we can absorb one grief, another takes its place. Be with each one afflicted with the coronavirus, we pray:  those who are ill, especially those in critical care; those who cringe in fear; each one who grieves the loss of loved ones who succumbed to the disease; those isolated from family and friends, especially those who are confused; those whose livelihoods have been disrupted; educators and students trying to move forward in spite of great obstacles; caregivers and healthcare workers whose energy is all but depleted.  Shine your unfading light upon each one, rekindling their broken spirits, that they may feel our prayers on their behalf, that they may know they are not alone, and that they be secure in their hearts that your strength will see them through.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

And as you offer us every opportunity to share our deepest selves with you, we place before you these additional needs and gratitudes of your people and Church Street.  Thank you for never too busy to listen when we call:

  • Celebration of husband’s return home after delicate heart surgery
  • Gratitude for test results showing no indication of cancer
  • Thanksgiving: Member home following bypass surgery
  • Grateful that beloved mother is recovering well from virus
  • Refugee children held on US border, that they may be released and reunited with their families before Christmas
  • Prayers for resolution of conflicts within two families
  • Peace for faithful member awaiting PET scan results this week
  • Protection of all healthcare workers who serve at great risk
  • Lift up a very ill sister-in-law who remains in ICU with COVID
  • Healing of teenage daughter, courage for worried parents
  • Comfort for husband whose young wife died last week and for entire family who are trying to find a way forward
  • Solace for two sons who grieve the death of their mother on Saturday
  • Prayers that a lonely daughter will find friends and companionship
  • Healing for a beloved mother & a father hospitalized with COVID
  • Strength and guidance for caregiver; continued healing for her husband
  • Mercy and peace for wife whose husband (51) died of a massive stroke
  • Healing from virus: young grandson and a young granddaughter
  • Prayers that a daughter finds the work God wants her to undertake
  • Faithful Christian friend with progressive cancer, now in ICU
  • A hospitalized brother, healing of foot infection, strength for family

Watch over us in these bleak times, O Lord, for we trust you will bear us up on eagle wings, as you have done from age to age, and one day we shall soar high above to reside with you and with your Beloved Son, who taught us this prayer:

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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Prayer for Today – November 16

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

November 16, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

If thou wilt suffer God to guide thee, and hope in God through all thy ways,

God will give strength, whate’er betide thee, and bear thee through the hardest days.

We offer praise to you, Lord God, for our church family. We thank you for all those who came before us, those who built our structure and dedicated it to your purposes, for those saints who guided us in walking in Jesus’ steps. We know that we are reaping what these other witnesses have sown – those who also lived through hard times. And like them, may we faithfully love, work, and serve your people, that even those yet unborn may benefit from our own labor. For we take comfort in knowing that when you call us home, we will rejoin that larger Church Street family, and indeed all your devoted servants, in that realm that has joy beyond our perception.

 

Sing, pray, and keep God’s ways unswerving; so do thine own part faithfully;

And trust God’s word, though undeserving, thou yet shall fine it true for thee. 

And even though we must be away from our beloved physical structure during this time of widespread virus, we believe you are holding us together in the invisible web of your love. You, O Unknowable One, are above and beyond both steeple and spire, both archway and font, both pulpit and altar. These merely point to your heavenly goodness. So while we are physically apart, let us imagine our house of worship permanently planted within our hearts. And with each heartbeat, we will be continually singing as one, lifting up those ageless hymns, celebrating the One who claims us and who will lead us safely back to Henley at his appointed time.

Watchful Savior, we pray for our created world and for all its inhabitants, each of whom you know intimately.  We focus far too intently on what has gone wrong in our lives, and in the lives of others. But ever so often, turn our attention to what we have received already through your untold generosity. One great gift is your invitation to offer our celebrations and our burdens, so hear now these sentiments that rise from the souls of your people at Church Street:

  • Member is grateful that her eye procedure on Thursday was successful
  • Family thankful husband/father was released from hospital on Friday
  • Thankful that friend recovering from open heart surgery is improving
  • Gratitude for the life of a loving Christian wife who died on Saturday
  • Thanksgiving that a father in ICU is much improved
  • Lift up a very ill sister-in-law who remains in ICU with COVID
  • Prayers for good news for member having imp medical test today
  • Comfort for husband whose young wife died this week and for entire family who are mourning her sudden death
  • Solace for two sons who grieve the death of their mother on Saturday
  • Prayers that a lonely daughter will find friends and companionship
  • Healing for a beloved mother and a father hospitalized with COVID
  • Strength and guidance for caregiver; continued healing for her husband
  • Comfort for beloved wife suffering from metastatic cancer and her family
  • Mercy and peace for wife whose husband (51) died of a massive stroke
  • Healing prayers for one recovering from delicate heart surgery
  • College-age grandson with COVID, that he may heal sufficiently to  finish his semester
  • Dear faithful Christian friend with progressive cancer, now in ICU
  • Healing for teenage daughter, wisdom and peace for her loving parents
  • A hospitalized brother, healing of foot infection, strength for family
  • Recovery from COVID for loved ones in hospitals and healthcare facilities

 

Only be still, and wait God’s leisure, in cheerful hope, with heart content,

To take whate’er thy Maker’s pleasure and all-discerning love hath sent.

Gentle Jesus, you once promised: “Ask and it shall be given.” And so we ask for these gifts:  for the courage to be brave in this time of stress; for the strength to carry out with hopeful hearts the ministries to which you have called us; for the tenacity to hold on, even when others are giving up; and for the love that moves us to be still and patient, and yet prepared, for whatever befalls. All these things we pray in your blessed name, just as you 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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