Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family*
Week of November 17, 2021
Rev. Tim Best
Most Caring God, as we approach the holiday of Thanksgiving, remind us that true thanksgiving is not a single day of the year, but an eternal season of gratitude, a lifestyle that we practice our entire lives. Fill our hearts to the brim with a sense of the magnitude of your grace in our world. And give us the courage to respond to that truth by spreading it around.
Caring God, provoke us to love and good deeds.
We pray this day for our community. As the weather grows colder we think of our neighbors with unreliable heat, poor insulation, those who work outdoors, and those who live without walls or heat. We pray for our neighbors who experience any sort of violence, and those who live as if they have no hope. We pray for all those who work to ensure the well-being of others within our community.
Caring God, provoke us to love and good deeds.
With love and concern we lift up our nation, the world, and all those who seek to lead. We know the problems that face our world are many, but we do not live as those without hope. As our community has sought to honor veterans this past week, may we commit to hold the needs of those who have served constantly in our prayers.
Caring God, provoke us to love and good deeds.
We lift up thankful hearts for all progress made against Covid. We are grateful for all doctors, nurses, caregivers, administrators, and support staff that have kept hospitals and clinics running. We are thankful for vaccines that are now available for elementary age children. We are thankful for ongoing research and development of medications and treatments for this disease. We are thankful also for the work we have been given to care for one another and our neighbors during this season.
Caring God, provoke us to love and good deeds.
We pray this day for those in our congregation who are struggling with health issues, those who are alone, and those who grieve. Be an ever-present companion to them. Give us eyes to see the pain of others in our midst and the courage to respond in love. Especially, we ask that you would look with kindness and mercy upon all your children at Church Street who bring to your door a world of cares. And also receive the gratitude that is expressed by those who have profoundly felt your mercy in recent times:
- Family celebrates: Husband’s cancer scans all clear
- Grateful for prayers: Hip replacement surgery in DC successful
- Thanksgiving: All well following delicate surgery at Vanderbilt
- Prayers appreciated: Friend approved for her 1st apartment
- Gratitude for prayers: Anxieties have eased
- Two families thankful for beach vacations
- Member celebrates the end of his Covid isolation
- Gratitude: husband admitted to hospital, now improving
- Thankful: Young daughter mending well following tonsillectomy
- One thankful that recent cancer scans were negative
- Praises: Injured member is receiving proper care in hospital
- Prayers that recent back procedure will prove effective
- Safety for a young son, musician who travels widely
- Family grieving the death of mother on Monday
- Family mourning death of a father this week
- Continued prayers for member with vision impairment
- Church couple struggling with Parkinson’s diagnosis
- Wisdom for daughter anxious about her mother’s care
- Prayers for our church and our 2021 stewardship effort
- Healing prayers for daughter hospitalized with sepsis
- Correct diagnosis for member experiencing heart problems
- Upholding church family grieving death of young son
- Son-in-law grieving the deaths of family members
- All who are bereaved and hurting during the holidays
- Strength for couple caring for two very ill parents
- Sustaining member in extended cancer treatment
- Dear friend (ALS) – now facing hospice care; sustaining prayers for friends assisting her
Today we recommit ourselves to the work and ministry of this local church. Guide our hearts as we discern how to most fully and faithfully give to you, O Christ. Bless the gifts that have been offered this commitment week, and bless those who pledge to support the church financially in the year ahead. May our gifts always be used for the work of your kingdom.
Caring God, provoke us to love and good deeds.
Hear us, Heavenly Father, in all that we ask, for we pray as your Son taught us:
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.
