BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
January 28, 2021
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
Ah, Lord, you have brought us safely once again to the edge of twilight, where we must confess we are an absent-minded people. Even today we failed to notice your song delivered by the bird on the windowsill, the gleam of sunlight filling a room, the parting of the clouds revealing an ocean-blue sky, the family of stately evergreens huddled close to shield us from the wind. But then, you are the God of Second Chances, so you will help us keep our eyes open wide tomorrow for those flowers of grace you keep unfurling, even in our era of bleakness.
God of the Ordinary, we long to do something of immense significance in improving our world’s vast needs. We cannot resolve homelessness, but we can lend a hand or financially support Habitat projects.We cannot fill every empty belly on the planet, but we can feed our neighbors at Soup Kitchen and Beacon of Hope. We cannot cure cancer and all injurious diseases, but we can send notes to and offer prayers of comfort for the hurting. We often wonder how our small acts actually dent these monumental challenges. Only Jesus knows, and it is in his name that we perform our small deeds in the ordinary ways open to us.
In our ordinariness, Lord, ease our anxieties when we feel we aren’t doing enough, and remind us you are making changes in individual lives and situations, not we ourselves. We rejoice at the ways you blessed us this day, especially in . . . . . . . . . . , while we also ask your forgiveness for the slights we may have inflicted upon others . . . . . . . . Glory to you, Lord Christ!
As the mundane becomes glorified through Christ, we offer these prayers especially for . . . . . . . . . . and on behalf of your people at Church Street:
- Ten members offer gratitude to church for helping them acquire virus vaccinations
- Member grateful for amazing support in her bereavement
- Grandmother grateful for church’s spiritual guidance and nurture of her grandson
- Thanksgiving: Infant tolerating cancer treatments well
- Family of four celebrate recovery from virus
- Thanksgiving that lung radiation is well-tolerated
- God’s grace for dear colleague whose cancer has spread
- Comfort for sons: Beloved mother nearing death
- Member with cancer, for improved red blood count
- Pray that son might be able to see his hospitalized mother before she succumbs to Covid
- Prayers for colleague: Shrinkage of cancer so surgery may proceed
- Healing for cherished cousin, stroke victim
- Prayers for clarity for overwhelmed wife
- Husband struggling with depression
- Decreased pain for cancer victim
- Three recovering from serious heart issues
- Infant cousin with tumor on spine
- Strength for two mothers: Sons gripped by addiction
- Continued prayers: One enduring chemo
- Strength for two weary caregivers
- For insurance company to approve chemo
O Keeper of the Night, offer your mercy to all your children whose burdens are heavy. Cloak us in holy rest under the beam of the full moon, for we turn over ourselves, and all whom we cherish, into your care. And may our final thoughts before sleep be filled with gratitude, as the prayer of your Son sings in our hearts:
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.
