Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of December 1, 2021
Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
(Ps 42:5)
O Root of Jesse and Hope of our World, upon you we depend, for it was you who sent the Promised One to be born and live among us. The love of Christ has grounded us in the hope that whatever is disquieting us at the given moment does not have the final word; for you make room in all our tomorrows for your own surprises. Even in our darkest hours, we are shored up by that stirring deep within us, that root of hope that you planted there so long ago. Fortify that root, we pray, that we might become living examples, moving in your world with that sense of confident expectation.
Forgive us, O God Ever New, that in our search for newness, we often overlook the sacred gifts you have placed on our doorsteps already. Help us to ponder your sacred messages written upon the morning, afternoon, and evening skies; turn our gaze to behold your love inscribed upon the radiant hills and mountaintops, painted in vibrant colors across the valleys that surround us. Grant, that with every refreshing raindrop, we may hear you speaking our name.
Companion Most Compassionate, go before us as we travel these days of Advent, showering us with your prevenient grace. May our footsteps take us to the forgotten byways, the roads less traveled, where the dispossessed are huddled. May our hands be the ones that touch the shoulders of the friendless and forgotten, imparting courage. May ours be the voices that speak kindness to those who have known only harshness and derision. And may our spirits be those that offer hope in those places where all seems to be lost. As you have called us, empower us through your grace, we pray, to serve at your command.
Truly there is much to torment us in our present world: from automatic weapons being wielded by young and old to the continuing fears of the dreaded virus; from the widening gap between the “have” and “have nots” to the rancorous disputes within our nation’s legislative bodies; from the growing aggressiveness of our country’s enemies to the rage carried out in our own neighborhoods. May we, as the Psalmist, turn to God for solace and strength, believing that any work to bring about change is indeed the Lord’s work and is for his glory.
As you are our Eternal Hope, we place our personal concerns before you in this hour, naming in the silence of our hearts, those persons and situations that are closest to us . . . . . . . . . . And also we share both the praises and worries expressed by your people at Church Street:
- Gratitude for all responding to our church’s stewardship effort
- Son is thankful for his mother’s successful surgery this week
- Member offers thanks for a new work position
- Young mother offers gratitude for baby’s health and family happiness
- Family thankful – paralyzed grandson continued improvement
- Member thankful her cancer remains at bay
- Couple offer thanks for a safe trip out of the country
- One grateful for promising grades in her difficult coursework
- Gratitude for a peaceful and pain-free death of suffering friend
- Solace and healing for members grieving recent death of a brother
- God’s healing presence with couple who remain secluded due to illness
- Traveling mercies for a son frequently on the road for work
- Healing for pastor in another church – suffering a broken arm
- Church families grieving during the holidays
- Grace to surround two families whose mothers died this week
- Continued guidance – one enduring physical & emotional trials
- Healing of a family’s broken relationship
- Sister facing cancer scans December 3
- Cherished father in rehab, in failing health
- God’s guidance healing for a mother with cancer diagnosis
- Continued strength for member in cancer treatment
- Four family friends mourning deaths of loved ones
- Prayers for mother enduring debilitating infection
- Exhausted daughter caring for mother with dementia
As evening closes in around us, Lord, may we set aside our work, knowing it is enough. And as we rest, may the efforts we have made this day somehow reveal the love you harbor for your people. It is in this assurance that we offer this prayer in the name of your Son, who came to redeem us 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.
