BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
August 25, 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
O One Who Calls, we heard Jesus say, “Take up your cross and follow me.” These are not words we particularly want to hear, and we wonder just what our own particular cross might be. Could it be enduring the thankless job we do every day, tolerating the grumpy co-worker, or putting up with the annoying relative who repeats the same story at every gathering? In our self-pity, are we reducing the gravity of Jesus’ command? When Jesus told the crowds “Take up your cross,” we remember how many troubled followers turned away. Perhaps they understood the true cost of discipleship far better than we. Will we continue to speak for Christ when all other voices have gone silent? Are we really ready to be twisted and broken, bent and bleeding upon a cross? God willing, should such times come, may our answer be a resounding “Yes!”
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Empowering One, has the world ever been this convoluted, we ask? Has evil always been this pervasive? Have divisions ever been more bitter? Our earth seems to groan with the heaviness it carries. Bear us up on angel wings today, we pray, that we might lightly touch others who are most in danger of sinking into the bog. Help us drop your gentle seeds of hope, for sometimes a mere whiff of your glory is all one needs to awaken to life afresh, to resist the downward tug of darkness, to spring to freedom.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
O Heart of Hope, strew your seeds of hope on each one we carry in our hearts this day, for we believe in your power to change us, to make our relationships new, to save us from despair, to give us courage and strength. You meet us where we are, knowing we are of fragile frame. Forgive us for repeating our prayers for help, but we ask us to be patient in our waiting, and we try to be. Hear first our most recent thanksgivings, those benevolences you have brought our way:
- Gratitude: mother in hospice care died peacefully yesterday at home
- Thankful that dear friend’s surgery yesterday at UT was successful
- Grateful that an elderly father’s heart issues require no intervention
- Prayers appreciated: young father now home from the hospital
- A student celebrates a negative virus test result
- Prayers please: one seeking help for her anxiety; health, family, & work issues
- Prayers for a sister unexpectedly laid off from her job
- Prayers for two tiny babies in NICU, grace & comfort for loving parents
- Adult son whose addictions are breaking up his family, prayers that he will earnestly seek treatment
- Peace & support for three members awaiting cancer surgery
- Healing of depression for a daughter & a daughter-in-law
- Wisdom for all to wear masks & attend to safety measures to avoid the spread of Covid-19, especially in schools, colleges & other public places
- Two members in cancer treatment, for easing of debilitating symptoms
- A sister who searches for answers to her health problems
- Guidance for loving son who is moving his father into assisted living
- Hope & healing for discouraged close friend, awaiting heart test results
- Prayers for resilience for loved ones isolated in residences, for caregivers
- Continued prayers: a very ill father at home & a father in hospice care
O Lord, you live in that kingdom of kindness, a world where love rules over all, a world where enemies embrace, where distinctions between friend and foe evaporate in the light of your mercy. Through Christ, we have a vision of what your home is like, and somewhere in this day, may we glimpse a bit of that kingdom on this earth. And rejoicing in that hope, we offer the prayer of Jesus who taught us about that place where our will and your will are the same:
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.
