BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
August 18, 2020
Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
Most of the time you seem so silent, Unknowable One. We sit beneath faint clouds in the sky and speak to you. Our prayers seem to echo out into the valley of nowhere. “Where are you?” we ask. “Are you hearing us?” we want to know. Then we restrain ourselves and empty our prayers of words, speaking only the language of the heart. And while we’re still scouring the horizon ahead for a sign, the wind rouses high in the trees behind us, leaving a chill up the spine. It is your cool reassurance: “I am here,” you say. Why should we be startled? Your joy finds us even when we are occupied elsewhere, even when our trust is wafer thin.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Trusted Deliverer, you know us as a splintered society existing on the edge. We feel that we’re traveling the fringe of a precipice, along a tight, disturbing path. Given our own inner brokenness, our rancor and resentments, we teeter unsteadily, fearing the plunge to dangerous depths below. We have no idea when your rescue teams will arrive, but where there is violence, send your peace; where there is instability, send your calm presence; where there is exhaustion, send your restoration; where there is hatred, send your abundant love; where there is mourning, send your comfort; where there is suspicion, send your wisdom. You have been faithful from generation to generation, always touching us with your astonishing grace. Yes, it’s a fright-filled journey, but you are teaching us that every road is walkable when you travel with us.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Much as stones piled high, we name those sins and missteps that have created a wall between us and our brothers and sisters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We thank you that you are tearing down these barriers, that we might be free to grow more fully in Jesus’ likeness. And receive also our gratitude for the personal ways you have enriched our lives in recent times . . . . . . . . . . .
Your mercies astound us, O Divine One, and we sense your permeating spirit at work in the lives of our people of Church Street:
- Thankful that a mother’s hip surgery Friday was successful
- Grateful for news of another grandchild on the way
- Gratitude: member recovering well from painful eye procedure
- Thanksgiving for the birth of a beautiful grandson in Cincinnati
- Thankful that a broken family is slowly beginning to heal
- Celebrating a sister-in-law’s full recovery from Covid-19
- Prayers & protection for one undergoing shoulder procedure today
- Sister in rehab facility with broken leg & ill husband who is lonely
- Prayers & blessings: member at Vanderbilt today for therapy consult
- Healing of daughter-in-law who is depressed, guidance for husband
- Safety for member in Nashville today, for guidance on cancer meds
- Prayers for a very ill father in Johnson City & his family who give care
- Protection for mother & family who presently live in fear
- Healing of granddaughter in Alabama with virus
- Family coping with death of beloved husband to the virus
- Comfort for family of son who died suddenly in New Zealand
- Continued healing of cousin recovering in burn clinic
- Healing for nephew with testicular cancer, for proper treatment
We confess that we love imperfectly, Lord, and our gestures of faith are sometimes half-hearted. But thankfully, your work within us is not yet finished; and we pray you would refine us to become shining agents of your kingdom. Begin your inner work afresh today, for we make this request, and indeed all our prayers, 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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