Saturday, April 10, 2010

Guidance In Troubled Times

Eternal God, our Father we would learn more about how to come into your presence to pray. We know we are not heard for our much speaking, but rather for what is in our hearts. We confess that words come easily to our lips, but so often our hearts are far from you. We thank you for the assurance that the Spirit Himself pleads with God for us, in groans that words cannot express. May we open our lives now to Thy Spirit, and ask that the barriers we have erected which keep us from being open and honest with you and others, be broken down. As the flood tide of anger and hatred and fear, and self-destruction pour out of our inner lives, let the Holy Spirit of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, kindness, self-control pour in. Help us to know the truth of the words we have spoken so often "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Our Father, we confess our need for guidance as we try to live in our confused world. We find it hard to know what to think or say or do. We hear many voices; so many remedies are proposed - so many plans of action are urged on us. As we think of the trouble today in church and state, save us from closing our minds and hardening our hearts and raising our voices. Help us to believe that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Help us to take hold of the promise that if in all our ways we will acknowledge you, you will direct our paths. Keep us close to our Bibles, believing that you word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And keep us close to your people, believing that still you will lead us through our own wilderness with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. "Drop Thy still dews of quietness, till all our striving cease; take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of Thy peace."
We commit to you all the needs of all the people. We cannot know, nor can we tell all of the heartaches and loneliness and suffering and indecision and sin represented. But we believe you do know and care. Our times are in your hand, and you will not cause your children a needless tear. Help us to lay our burden down and to believe that your strength is made perfect in weakness. Teach us the secret of being satisfied with what we have, to know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough - to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives us. And at last, when we or those we love are called on to die, help us to be able to say, "Yea tho I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."
We ask it all in the name of Jesus. Amen

Assurance

Eternal God, our Father, we are glad to come here and pray again. Amid the shifting sands of time we feel the need of celebrating your eternity. And with the sure mark of mortality upon us, we so want to hear Jesus saying, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, tho he die, yet shall he live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." May this hour be a true means of grace for every one of us. The invitation is given: "Seek ye my face" - May we respond gladly with all our powers: "Thy face, Lord, will I seek".
We hope, O Lord, that we are aware of blessings without number - home and family and country - health of body and the marvels of sight and sound -your Church that evermore lifts holy hands above, offering up on every shore her pure sacrifice of love. For those who have gone before us who are like a cloud of witnesses - and for those now with us running the race together, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. There are many mysteries about life and death and the future, our Father, but keep us true to what we believe and establish us in the faith that our times are in your hands, whatever they may be, pleasing or painful, dark or bright.
W link our weakness with your strength. We know we are held responsible for the life you have given us, but we know too that we cannot go it alone. With all our knowledge, we still stare in the face of the vast unknown; with all we know about living the good life, we still do what we do not want to do and fail to do what we want to do; and with our daily confrontation with evil and death, we still have no answer within ourselves. We praise you that there is an answer - in the revelation of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Keep our eyes fixed upon Him in these confused and troubled times. No matter where we are - in joy or sorrow - in sickness or health - in peace or in turmoil -in assurance or in doubt - in fellowship or in loneliness - help us to hear Him saying, "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, and you shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
We pray in His name. Amen

Forgiveness

Eternal God, our Father, we need you more than we need anything else that we can think or imagine. And from the bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to you again.
Forgive us for what we have been; help us to amend what we are; and by your grace enable us to go on from victory to victory toward what we can become in Christ our Lord.
We confess that we have been hard on others and easy with ourselves. We are so quick to see and to point out the failures even of those we love the best, and we overlook so completely our own faults and failures. Forgive us, Lord, and help us not to be glad when others go wrong, but to be gladdened by goodness, always eager to believe the best.
Forgive our arrogance when we demand to know and understand what only God can know and understand. Increase our faith so that we can be sure of what we hope for and have an unshaken conviction of the things we cannot see. Take away, O Lord, our false piety which causes us to say holy words without feeling the necessity of living a holy life within and in our relationships with other people.
The sorrow of the world overwhelms us at times - and then at other times we go on our way unaware of what goes on daily in hospitals and nursing homes and in the ghettos and in broken homes.
O God, let us be aware.
Let us not stumble blindly down the ways,
Just somehow getting through the days,
Nor even groping for another hand,
Not even wondering why it all was planned,
Eyes to the ground unseeking for the light,
Soul never aching for a wild-winged flight.
Please, keep us eager just to do our share.
God - let us be aware.
Make us all faithful and creative where we are and in the task to which we are called.
All that we ask is in the name of Him who still calls His disciptles to leave all and follow Him. Amen

Christmas

Eternal God, our Father, this is the holy time of prayer, and we need it so much! Quiet the clamors of our lives. Subdue the turmoils without and within, and make in our hearts a quiet place, and come and dwell therein.
We confess that at times we seem to be more than one person. We are sad and we are glad; we think thoughts of beauty and we contemplate the ugly and impure; we intend to do right but we do wrong. O Lord, we understand why Paul cried out: "My own behavior baffles me. For I find myself not doing what I really want to do but doing what I really loathe. I often find that I have the will to do good, but not the power....I don't accomplish the good I set out to do, and the evil I don't really want to do I find I am always doing....who on earth can free me from the clutches of my own sinful nature?" We thank you that there is an answer: "There is a way out thought Jesus Christ our Lord."
Remind us as we wait in prayer, Lord and as we listen for your word - remind us that in a dark sky a star once shone - that when life was filled with noise and confusion, busyness and strife, a chorus of angels sang of your glory and the promise of peace - and when simple shepherds were almost in despair, an angel of the Lord brought the good tidings that a Saviour was born. O Lord, help us not to think of all this good news as being in the past and for people who lived long ago. Help us to believe it is your good news to us, too....that the light is still shining in the darkness and that the darkness can never put it out - that the song has not died - that Christ is here today with His wonderful invitation: "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden....Behold, I stand at the door and knock...."
May we here and now promise you that by your help we will have a Christmas celebration this year that will be worthy of the good news of salvation in Christ: that we will renew our vows of discipleship - that we will take hold of the burden of the world somewhere - that we will become involved in His plan of redemption for all mankind. In His name we pray......Amen

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Mighty Acts of God

Eternal God, our Father, bring us together now as we pray - make us one in Christ Jesus our Lord. May the neediest know the love of the wealthiest, and may the weakest of us be made strong as we learn to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. May the stranger and the alienated feel alone and apart no more because Christ has broken down the walls that divide us and made us one in Himself.
Forgive us, our Father, for our poor representation of the Christian life. We have not been such different from those who do not know Him and confess Him. Forgive us for thinking we are Christians when we are merely going through the formalities. Forgive us too when we who seek to follow Christ sometimes make it hard for struggling souls because we make it seem to them that we have no struggles of our own. We confess that we act at times as if there are only victories when we live the Christian life - only peace. We fail to acknowledge before those who need us that we have our own moments of doubt and fear, and even despair. Help us to represent this Christian life as it really is so that we can accept our acceptance with Thee just as we are, and so that we can encourage some wrestling with the troubled sea of life.
Today, our Father, we thank you for the written word of the Bible. We thank you for those men and women who were moved by the Holy Spirit to write down their experiences with you and your mighty acts in history. We thank you, too, for those who were moved by the same Holy Spirit to bring the Bible together in one book; and for those who translated it so that we and many others can read in our own tongue the mighty works of God; and for those scholars who have studied your word and helped us to understand its meaning then and now. We thank you that your word is indeed good news - good news for modern men and women. Help us to learn how to study your word which is able to make us wise unto salvation.
And now, O Lord, in quietness and confidence we would open our lives to you in our need. We would reach out to those we know and love who need our prayers, and beyond those we know to all who suffer because of accident, disease or troubled hearts. We wait for your word. Whatever it is help us to obey, remembering that Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven."
We ask all this in your name. Amen

Hope

Eternal God, our Father, as we bow our heads, we would acknowledge you as sovereign Lord; as we close our eyes, we pray for a vision of your glory; as the physical world fades from view, may the unseen world which is eternal become real to us. Teach us, our Father, that what we do now is the pathway to what we seek, for as we own you to be Lord we come to know what it is to be truly human; as we seek and live for the spiritual, the world and our flesh find their rightful place; as we seek first your Kingdom and your righteousness, all the other things we seek will be added to us.
We thank you, our Father, that Jesus Christ came into this world, lived, died, and rose from the dead that we might know that depth of your love and the plan of redemption, and the hope of the future. In these times of deep perplexity may we remember how you said, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will tell you what he hears, and will speak of things to come. He will give me glory, for he will take what I have to say and tell it to you." O Lord, we want to claim this promise of the Spirit for our lives. We want our lives to be a place where the Holy Spirit takes what Christ has and tells it to us. We want more and more to become a true community of the Spirit, led, directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We feel so helpless as times in the face of our own and the world's need. May we hear you saying, "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord."
So we pray that you will bring the scenes of our lives before us, and help us to see life and to evaluate our living in the light of your truth and love revealed in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.....our homes, our families, our business, our pleasures, our neighbors, our community, our country, our distraught world.....we would bring them all to Thee. And if we have spurned your call to give and serve, we would begin anew today to do what we have neglected to our own hurt. And if we have lost hope in the midst of our troubles and sorrows, we would be rekindled in the faith that if God is for us, nothing can be against us. "Our times are in they hands, My God, I wish them there; my life, my soul, my friends, I leave entirely to Thy care."
Hear all the prayers of your people - this spoken prayer and those unspoken - and answer us in your mercy. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen

Monday, April 5, 2010

A Prayer for Unbelief

Our Father, we have heard these blessed words so often but our ears are so dull that we cannot really hear - "Let not your hearts be troubled." But we are troubled, often troubled about the wrong things but still troubled. If only we could really hear what our blessed Lord is saying - "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.: What a difference that would make in us! Help us to hear Him; help us to believe. We do believe but so haltingly, so hesitatingly, so partially. Help our unbelief!

May we learn to step out in faith, believing that if God is for us, nothing can be against us. Enable us as we respond to the Gospel to get along a step further to the true nonchalance of a Christian - a calm repose in Christ. We ask this not that we might escape the hard demands of life, but that we might know how to meet the daily toils and cares of family and business; to take our share of the world's burdens; and to perform that service that we are capable of. O Lord, free us from the unnecessary burdens we bear in order that we might learn to bear the burden of another and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Come now and honor your word this hour. Make us true to your word, your word spoken through the Bible and your word spoken by the Holy Spirit to our needs right now where we live. If we say we love God and hate our brother, we know we are liars and the truth is not in us. O Lord, help us in all we do to love not only in word but also in deed and in truth.

And now may all who are in need of soul or body or mind or community know in this moment that they are included in our prayers and in your love and in our love.

We ask this prayer in the name of Him who loved us and gave himself for us. Amen