BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
October 29, 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
Forever Guide, on this long journey called life, we confess that we do not always live as your people. We want to shine as the saints above, but we are often consumed in our own pursuits and do far too little to keep our promises. Day and night we have been swaddled in your love, fed by your mercy and nursed in your grace; and still we overlook the unfolding of your kingdom in our very midst. We thank you for our examples, those who left us legacies of trust. Sing to us the old songs of the saints, the melodies of your friends who continued to walk in your way of light, who lived by faith even when tribulations descended. Give us grace, we pray to join in that unending chorus of the faithful.
Redeeming God, these days you find us wringing our hands and lamenting, as so much around us seems to be swirling in disorder. Chaos appears to be gaining the upper hand across our own country, even threatening to cover your beautiful planet. We long for that land where justice rolls down as a mighty river and righteousness moves as an ever-flowing stream; but our fear of change blocks our path. Help us, Good Lord, to be bold enough to take those deliberate steps toward loving and understanding our brothers and sisters everywhere. We know you are a God who redeems, and pray you would take that anxiety and confusion, even from within ourselves, and make of them a seedbed of your new creation.
Lord of the Disheartened, gather in your arms, we pray, those who are most discouraged – those whom we know and others who are strangers, huddled in some faraway, lonely corner. Embrace those who are ill or frightened as they face a diagnosis, illness, surgery, poverty, or any sort of loss. We know you hear the cries of our hearts and that you have not left us comfortless. May your Spirit attend each one, and also these who are connected to the Church Street family:
- Grateful for prayers: Pastor with kidney ailment released from hospital
- One is thankful for successful cataract surgery on Wednesday
- Thanksgiving for church study opportunities
- Member family celebrates the birth of healthy baby boy yesterday
- Prayers for two members assist with sister-in-law’s funeral in Florida
- Prayer that counselor may be of help to son with major addictions
- Healing of our nation and order to be restored
- Granddaughter (18) with virus, protection for family, especially her father
- Lifting of depression for three members who suffer significantly
- Healing for best friend in North Carolina with virus; that her family is not infected
- Continued prayers for young wife battling leukemia
- For calm and courage for members awaiting a court ruling
- Healing of dear friend – young man in critical care, battling Covid-19
- Sustaining prayers for mother in hospice care, comfort for her family
- Continued prayers for healing of beloved elderly mother
- Healing of young son with virus & protection of his family
- Nephew in Missouri on ventilator with Covid-19 and his wife infected
Gracious Sustainer, we give you thanks for your open ear that receives all our prayers, for friends and family members who support us, and for those role models who have upheld us through the years. And most of all, we are humbled by the gift of your Son Jesus, who taught us the depth of your love and the wideness of your mercy. We lift up all these offerings this day in the name of Christ, who prayed 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.
