Forgiveness

Eternal God, our Father, we come before you, the Lord of heaven and earth, our creator and redeemer - our refuge and strength, our help in every time of trouble. We do not know how to pray as we ought, but we thank you for the promise that the Holy Spirit helps our infirmities with sighs too deep for words.
Make us aware of our need of Thee - the forgiveness of our sins and your empowerment for life. If we need not to confess what we call the great sins of the flesh, we do need to confess the deadly sins of the spirit: pride, envy and jealousy; anger, intolerance, anxiety and worry. We have spoken the quick word which hurt one for whom Christ died. We have passed by on the other side of pain and need. We have been so preoccupied with our own comforts and plans that we have been deaf to the cries of our fellow man in haunts of wretchedness and need. We rationalize until wrong is made to appear right. We read the obituary column in every daily paper as if it doesn't matter, and forget that our own name will appear there one day. O Lord, forgive us, and stab us awake with others' pain.
We thank you for our church where we can meet to worship and under the sound and power of the gospel reorder our lives. We thank you that here we find a channel for giving and serving. Raise our vision, O Lord. Make us more faithful in what we now do, and call us to new and needed witness and work. Call us into your service in the Church and in the world.
May no person in this congregation feel lost and alone during this hour of worship. May the most needy one know that this prayer is for him, for her. And may the power of the Holy Spirit be present to heal, to bless, to empower, to sanctify.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Assurance

Eternal God, our Father, we pray for a real sense of your presence as we bow together in prayer. We cannot see you with the physical eye, nor hear you with the physical ear - but we believe you are as real as the sun that shines with such splendor, and the thunder that roars. All of us at the best moments of our lives have had a sense of your presence with us and you voice speaking to us.
We are shamed today - ashamed that we have put more store by the world of time and sense than we have by our relationship to you and your Kingdom. Come to us today and show us again how life in all its beauty can be ours - a life of meaning and purpose, including all the world and heaven, too. May we give you back the life we owe - which we have tried to keep for ourselves, but have so miserably failed in trying - may we give you back the life we owe, that in your ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.
We know, our Father, that we live in a time of great trial and distress. But somehow we feel that you are shaking the earth in order that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Your fires burn in order to reveal the pure gold. Help us to see our lives and our times through the eyes of faith and the mind of Christ.
We pray that the Church of which we are a part, may reaffirm our mission to the world - the world around us and the world beyond us. Save us, O Lord, from being little. Give us a great and expanding love which opens our eyes to the need around us - a love which suffers long and is kind; which is not happy with evil but only with the truth; a love which never gives up and which never fails.
We believe our prayers can reach the bodies and minds of those who are sick; the loneliness of those who are far away; the alienation of those who hate and cannot forgive; the burden of those who are weary and heavy laden. O Lord, let your word find its mark at the point of our deepest need this hour.
All that we ask is in Jesus' name. Amen

Love

Eternal God, our Father, we want to thank you first of all for leading us to this hour, for we believe that we have been led by the Holy Spirit. Now we pray that you will be present in a very real way to help us sort out the things that are important from those that are not important. O Lord, help us to think straight - but even more, lead us to know how to love completely.
We have heard so many in our time who have sung out of an empty life in an empty world, "What the world needs now is love sweet love; Love is what there is just too little of." We believe this Lord. How our own hearts ache to love and to be loved, and we believe we are one with all mankind in this. But we have found that even when we have tried hard, we can't generate love in our own strength. Our kind of love turns back in on us and makes our problem seem worse because we try to buy peace of soul with good deeds. What we want, O Lord, and what we feel the need of is still in such short supply in our own poor hearts!
We hope and trust that we are ready today to turn to the eternal fountain of your love poured out on us and on all the world in our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to believe that here is where the empty cup of life can be filled to overflowing. Teach us to say until it grips our hearts: "He love ME and gave himself for ME." "Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly..."
Then, O Lord, as your love flows like a rushing stream into our own hearts, we shall come to understand what it means to show love, and we shall seek and find ways to show love to others: our families, our friends, even our enemies and those with whom we disagree. "We love because He first loved us." Let this be our theme, Lord.
We bring this hour to you for your blessing. We seek your love for ourselves for all who are sick of body, mind or soul - and for all who need you.
All that we ask is in your name. Amen

Lent

O Lord our God, unseal our lips that we may sing you praises - give us words that we may speak of your love - unstop our ears that we may hear what the Spirit is saying to us - and take our wills and make them yours that we may know what is best for us and have the power to do it.
We praise you that into our distraught world there has come One who has taught us how to live and how to die and how to live eternally. When we seek and admire pomp and power, He comes riding humbly on a donkey to proclaim His kind of rule. In our fickleness we cry out our Hosannas with the multitude on Sunday, then join in crying for His crucifixion on Friday - but He still dies for us - and we who were His enemies can now be His friends through His death. We deny Him as He only turns and looks at us. We betray Him and He still calls us friend. We follow Him afar off and sleep while He agonizes - and at last when we are in danger because of our discipleship we forsake Him and flee, not knowing we are fleeing the only hope we have of salvation and eternal victory. Still we crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame - and still He dies that we might be forgiven, He dies to make us good.
O Lord, may we not miss the message of this season. Help us to take time to ponder it - and to stand at His Cross on Good Friday to discover that our richest gain is but loss when we look upon Him there, and to pour contempt on all our pride.
Show us what a difference this Cross makes, accepted by us and incarnated in us: what a difference it makes in our differences bringing us together - what difference it makes in strife bringing peace - in our families bringing love - and tomorrow, and forever bringing hope, bringing eternal life. Teach us, O Lord, that bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, by the cross are sanctified; peace is there that knows no measure, joys that through all time abide.
And may we tarry there until we are changed and are willing to help change the world by taking up our own Cross and following Him.
All that we ask is in His name. Amen

Day of Pentecost

Eternal God, our Father, we come to be in your presence. Yet we know that no house is big enough to hold you and your power. We gaze in awesome wonder upon all that you have made - we think of the growing knowledge of your universe and of the world within ourselves - and we can sing, "How Great Thou Art!" We confess that we become proud and self-sufficient when we forget you and seek to make our own way in this world without prayer and faith and worship and commitment. Then we confront the mystery again, and our restless hearts, and the wreck we make of life. Truly you have made us for yourself and our hearts will always be restless until they rest in Thee. We stand with Peter and cry out, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life"!
So help us to stay here until the blessing is given. Like Jacob of old, may we wrestle with you and not let you go until you have blessed us. Like the prophets, if the vision tarry, may we wait for it.
We believe, our Father, that much of our difficulty is caused by our unwillingness to change. We are afraid of change - yet we live in a world where change is swirling around us. Can it be that your Spirit is in our world, breaking up our old patterns of living; seeking to cleanse our stagnant pools; calling us, as Jesus called Peter and James and John and so many more, to leave their old manner of living and come follow Him. We confess that we are like Nicodemus - puzzled over being born again when we are old - yet we still hear Jesus saying, "You must be born again". O Lord, call us again over the tumult of our life's wild restless sea. Let the winds of the Holy Spirit blow through us as on the Day of Pentecost.
We are many. We are from varying backgrounds and many families. Our needs are so different that sometimes we think we have more problems than anyone else, and are called on to suffer more than anyone we know. Cause us to hear Jesus saying today: "Your Heavenly Father knows your needs; not a sparrow falls to the ground without His care; the very hairs of your heads are all numbered". And may we therefore be able to bring it all with the mysteries of our existence the questions we cannot answer - the sorrow we cannot explain - and believe that God cares with the care of Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen

WITNESS

Lord God, dear Father in heaven, sometimes we wonder why we keep coming to Thee. We come with so little expectation. We are so faltering in our faith--so formal in our greetings--so devoid of joy. We know how that man felt who wrote:
"In vain we tune our formal songs; in vain we try to rise;
Hosannas languish on our tongues, and our devotion dies."

Then we wonder:
"And shall we forever live at this poor dying rate?
Our love so faint, so cold to Thee, and thine to us so great!"

So help us to pray:
"Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all thy quickening powers,
Kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours;
Come, shed abroad a Saviour's love and that shall kindle ours."

When this happens, our Father, we shall know once more why we were born and for what cause we came into the world. Then we will wonder why all men do not turn to Thee for life. And we want to say to the unhappy, unfulfilled people, "Come with us to Christ--Christ is the answer to our problems day by day--Come with us to Christ!" O Lord, don't allow that desire to share Him with others die from our hearts until we have found someone to love for His sake and have brought them to Christ and the Church.

Give us, we pray, the message we need to hear. Deliver us from the notion that God spoke only in times past through the prophets and written words of the Bible. Show us how your word is spoken now and is alive and active--how it cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword--how it strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet, to the innermost intimacies of a man's being--how it exposes the very thoughts and motives of our hearts. Remind us that no creature has any cover from the sight of God--that all of us lie naked and exposed to Thee. And help us to believe that what we need most in mind or spirit or body--what we need most in our relationships with other people in our families, our community, in the world at large--what we need most Thy Word can meet and heal and make alive again.

We ask it all in the name of Him who is still the Word made flesh and who still dwells among us full of grace and truth. Amen.

WORSHIP

Eternal God, our Father, we call upon all that is within us to worship Thee. Great is thy faithfulness. We live and die, succeed and fail, because you are faithful. We trust the future because you art faithful.

Oh, make us faithful, too! We confess that we are willful. We want our own way. We stand every moment at the edge of the abyss, held back only by the eternity which you have set in our hearts. We thank you for Him whose life, death, and resurrection have made it possible for the whole world to be reborn. Accepting Him, may we also accept our role in Thy kingdom now and Thy kingdom which is to come.

We thank you for the privilege of worship. May Thy presence be real to each of us. Rekindle the fires on the cold altars of our hearts. Banish the cynicism and despair which hold us in their terrible grip. Give us the gift of love and show us the attraction of holy living--and the inclusiveness of it. Remind us here of those whose living enriches our living and of those who die that we might go on living.

We remember before Thee the sick and the discouraged, the bereaved and those who count themselves a failure. Turn them and all of us to the Cross, where both bane and blessing, pain and pleasure are sanctified and where peace is found which knows no measure and joy that then all time abides.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.

BLESSING

Eternal God, our Father, great are thy promises to those who put their trust in Thee. We confess that there is so much that we do not understand. But we confess, too, that we have not claimed thy promises that are clear to us.

So we go on worrying, weary, and heavy laden, living in the dark stuffy room of self. Help us now to hear Jesus saying, "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Behold I stand at the door and knock.....". O God, blow like the wind through us this day to take away our staleness--our stuffiness--so that we can breathe freely in the new world of the Holy Spirit.

We thank you for all our blessings--for the blessing of your creation within us and all around us--for the joys of human fellowship--for those we love in our family and those who are our friends outside our families. We thank you for the priesthood of all believers within the family of God--that we are called to minister to each other in the name and the spirit of Christ. And, O Lord, may we so live and love here--and out yonder in the world--that many who are lost and lonely will find through us what they most need.

Our prayer today reaches to hospital rooms, to nursing homes, to prison cells, to the homes of those who are shut in by age or illness, to places or work where people find it hard to see the relation between work and worship--to youth seeking the meaning of life and often not finding an example of it in us who are older.

O Lord, break through all our barriers and let us see God high and lifted up--even on a cross--but able on Thy cross to draw all men to Thyself, where our burden shall drop from our backs into an empty tomb and never be seen again. We make our prayer in His name whom we say we adore. Help us to adore Him more. Amen.

SERVICE

Eternal God, our Father, we are here before you, each of us separately and all of us together because we are His children. It is too good to be true that you are saying to us now, "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest"; "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man will open the door, I will come in". It is hard to accept the assurance that we are accepted--that we can only come just as we are. But we know that others have come, and have been welcomed, pardoned, cleansed, relieved--and released for witness and service in the world.

May there be according to thine own way and plan a drawing of the Holy Spirit toward the center of your love and power. We remember in your marvelous universe that our astronauts left the pull of the gravity of the earth and came within the pull of the gravity of the moon. May your power enable us to leave the pull of our own sinful, selfish nature, and come under the pull of the Holy Spirit toward you and other people who need us.

Now, O Lord, this time of worship is in your hands. Help us not to try to take it out of your hands--rather help us to open our own hands in supplication--ready to receive your gift--and then, having received, ready to go, ready to stay, ready my place to fill; ready for service lowly or great, ready to do your will.

We ask it all in the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen

FAITHFULNESS

Eternal God, our Father, while our eyes are closed to the world around us, we would fix the eyes of our souls upon Thee--our creator and redeemer--from whom all the blessings of life flow. We confess that we are often confused and lonely--but we thank Thee now that there is a place of quiet rest where we can think about life and allow the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us. All of us have sinned by thought, word, and deed and come short of thy glory --but we thank you here and now and confess our sins; we are forgiven and can start clean again. And, O Lord, if some of us have drifted so gradually and so far from Thee that we no longer have a keen sense of God or sin or duty--come to us at this moment and give us again a principle within of watchful, godly fear--and help us to feel the first approach of pride or wrong desire.

We pray for our country today. In these troubled times, help us to hear the ancient promise of the Scriptures: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

We feel, O Lord, that we have an awesome responsibility and a glorious opportunity. Like Paul, we feel that a great door has been opened to us. Here we are with all our rich resources for proclaiming and teaching the gospel and all around us are people like us who are seeking life, some joyful and effective in Christian witness and living, others wandering and lost. So help us to be true to the good news that is in Christ. Forgive us for our pessimism when we serve a risen Saviour who is in the owrld today, born in a stable, growing up in an out of the way tiny town, and coming out of a tomb to conquer the kingdom of this world and make them the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. And we are His disciples. Give to us the joy of the Lord, like Paul and Silas, who sang hymns and praised God in jail at midnight.

We thank Thee for this hour of worship. May it bring to us memories that bless and burn; may it bring healing for our sicknesses; joy for our sorrows; strength for our weakness; life for our death--- and the victory that overcomes the world through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask
it all in His name. Amen.

Prayer For The World

Eternal God, our Father, we come to Thee, the lord and giver of life. Life comes to us in all its varieties. We have laughed and cried; we have succeeded and failed. We have loved and hated. We are at times awed by the good impulses we feel within, and sickened by the evil we are capable of. Sometimes we feel like the Apostle Paul did: Our own behavior baffles us. We find ourselves not doing what we really want to do, but doing what we really loathe. And we cry out, "Who on earth can deliver me from the clutches of my own sinful nature?" We thank you that there is an answer - there is a way of deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We come to you full of awe and wonder at your creation. Your plan and purpose are evident all around us. We remember that in the beginning, we were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Forgive us that we misuse your creation, pollute it, and litter it with our trash. Bless all science and industry that are dedicated to unlocking the secrets of your marvelous creation and making them available for the healing and enjoyment of your people. Make us good stewards of the earth and all that is in it. Many of us follow you from afar. We are full of doubts and fears. The world around has problems which defy our best wisdom, and we confess that in our homes, our schools, our work, our government, and even in our churches we seem to be sitting on a powder keg. Give us, we pray, a concern that will lead us to seek the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit for our own lives as individuals, as husbands and wives, as parents, and as youth - as we seek to find our way through these troubled times. We give you the praise. Now help us to open the door where you are knocking.
These poor spoken words of prayer and all that rise to your throne of grace unspoken we bring in the name of Him who loves us. Amen

Easter Prayer

Eternal God, our Father, everything seems so different on this Resurrection Day - and we praise Thee that it is so. The world itself is different, bursting into the new life of spring. Church seems different: the choir sings Alleluia! and your presence is so near and so real. Life itself is different because the glory of Jesus' resurrection throws its light on our pathway here and we know that life is real, life is earnest and the grave is the grave of those we have loved and know they are not there - they are at home with you. We live in the hope of his resurrection.
And so we come with only one word on our lips: Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigheth! Our minds cannot understand or explain the resurrection. Our science is not sufficient for it. The pomp and glory of the world does not hold a candle to the power and glory of it. Today, when we hear the good news proclaimed again, "He is not here, He is risen", we can only fall down and worship, and say with the redeemed multitudes, "Worthy is the lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!"
Come, O Lord, and give us the resurrection faith if we do not know it. We confess our slowness to believe. We remember that when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary heard the glad news of the resurrection, they departed from the tomb full of fear, yet with great joy. But their fear turned into complete joy as the risen Lord came to them. Come to us, O Lord, in your risen power, drive out our fear and confirm our faith in your resurrection.
Then let us live the resurrection life in the world. May we hear clearly the words of exhortation, "If you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above...." May our old life of selfishness die today and the new life in Christ rise in us until we can say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me." So, O Lord, as everything seems different today, may we be made different to live in your world, until we are called to live with you forever.
We ask it in His name, Amen.

The Need Of God's Presence

Eternal God, our Father, we come apart once more to be with you, our creator and redeemer. We come apart to pray. Oh, how we need this time in your presence! We come apart from the world because we need to. Yet, the world seems to be here with us. We know that we have not left life out yonder where we live and work. We bear the scars of our sin and neglect, and we bring with us the confusion that has been created by the events of the past week.
O Lord, help us to learn the lesson Elijah learned long ago in a time of seeming defeat and discouragement; you do come to us, not in the earthquake, or the wind or the fire, but in the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. Help us here to be still and know that Thou art God. You will be exalted above the anguish and the violence of our day. You will be exalted in the earth. Help us to believe that even the shaking of our earth today can be you mighty hand removing the things that can be shaken in order that the things which cannot be shaken may remain
Dear Lord, we are thankful that you have set the solitary in families. How marvelous is the love that brings forth new life to be nurtured in the continuing love of home and family! Forgive us when we do not keep the vision alive, and help us to seek and accept our role both as parents and as children in homes where we love you supremely and where your will is our way of life.
Many of us come to you, our Father, with the same problems we had yesterday, and the day before. Our burdens weigh heavily on us, and we seem not to be able to believe that they can become light under the yoke of Christ. We confess that we say the words: We want to be made whole and we hear the words of blessed assurance, "Son, they sins are forgiven Thee" - yet, we find it hard to believe the good news that you do accept us just as we are - to be made clean and whole again, not through our continual trying and failing, but through the love of Christ who breaks the power of the sin He cancels. Help us to believe it now - may the whole world come to know in some small way, through us, that a different life is possible and a different world is in your plan and purpose, through our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his name, Amen

The Shortness Of Life

Eternal God, our Father, we come before you once more in prayer. We read from the Scriptures that you are from everlasting to everlasting - our lives are as brief as only a part of the day, like a drop of water beside the vastness of the ocean - like a grain of sand on the beach. Yet you have made us to love Thee and to love one another. And you have assured us of your love in the matchless life and words and deeds of Jesus. Help us, we pray, to hold on to this faith in you and in ourselves amid the cynicism of the world, and to believe amid sufferings, disappointments, and failures, that all things work together for good to those who love God.
We are thankful for our own warm house, and warm bodies. Today in your presence remind us that we can live in a warm house and be cold toward each other; our bodies can be warm while our hearts are cold with fear and unconcern. We know that we should care about warm houses and warm bodies. We know that food and clothing and health are important. But help us to know that there is nothing more important than our entrance into the Kingdom of God, your Kingdom of love and peace, where all other things become ours as well.....where we discover what life is all about, and we begin to understand the meaning of our existence.
So, Our Father, may this be the hour of new birth for us, without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. May this be the time of forgiveness of our sins and healing for our illness. And if there are those who are beset by nameless fears and anxiety we do not understand, may this be the time when we learn that you will keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because they trusts in you. And if we are filled with fear for the future, may this be the moment when we believe the promise, "in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct Thy paths."
These spoken prayers, and all that are unspoken among these your people, we offer in the name of Jesus. Amen

Prayer For Christmas

Eternal God, our Father, when we come to you in prayer, help us not to try to cover up anything in our lives. Your Word is that you did search us and know us. You know when we sit down and when we rise up. There is not a word on our tongue or a thought in our hearts but lo, O Lord, you know it altogether.
We thank you that even though you know us, you love us. And you seek us out. Even with all our waywardness, your hand is stretched out still to save us. We are invited to come boldly to your throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in every time of need.
So we need not be other than what we really are before you. We are accepted - forgiven - cleansed - made whole - empowered for life - victorious over sin and death. We thank you for your unspeakable gift.
Our Father, Christmas is coming again - and we are asking and are being asked, "Are you ready for Christmas?" May we this hour hear you asking us this question. Oh, let not our hearts be busy inns that have no room for you, but cradles for the living Christ and His nativity!
Help us to take a fearless inventory of our thoughts and plans and activities - and what we cannot lay as a gift before you, let us be strong enough to strike from our lists.
And, our Father, when we think of the sorrow in our own lives and the life of the world, may we remember that Christ was born for this, and therefore Christains everywhere can rejoice with heart and soul and voice if we will give heed to what you have said.
May the message be: "He calls you one and calls you all to gain His everlasting Hall; Christ was born to save, Christ was born to save!"
We make this prayer in his name. Amen

INSPIRATION

Eternal God, our Father, we praise Thee that we are now invited into Thy presence with many invitations and promises: "Lo, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; Come, let us reason together", says the Lord, "tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as white as snow." "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." We want to claim these promises and come boldly to Thy throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find help in our time of need.

We thank Thee for many blessings--even for the blessing of difficulty, pain and failure, which rid us of pride and self-sufficiency, and cause us to remember that we are creatures dependent upon Thee. We thank you most of all for the revelation of Thyself in our Lord Jesus Christ. He has shown that you are not a God far off in the distant heavens, but present here with us. He was in all points tempted like we are yet without sin. Therefore He can help us in our own temptations. He died for our sins and was raised for our justification.

We wish our world knew the Saviour and the peace He came to bring. We wish that we ourselves knew Him better and could represent Him to our world more completely. O Lord, stay the hand of evil men and turn our world toward peace. We pray for peace in Vietnam and in the Middle East. WE pray for peace in our nation and in our community--not just the absence of conflict, but the kind of peace that is based on love for Thee, obedience to your commandments, and love for our brothers for whom Christ died.

Warm the hearts that have grown cold. And may those who are in the far country wasting their lives come to themselves and arise and return to Thee, the Father of us all.

Meet our needs this hour through the riches of Thy grace in Christ Jesus. Speak to each of us, O Lord, and let us know that it is our name that is being called. All that we ask is in Jesus' name. Amen

A Christmas Prayer

Eternal God, our Father, this wonderful story is so old, yet so new each time we read it! We come here again under its spell--to contemplate its meaning for our lives--and we trust to allow it to penetrate our minds and hearts, and to find expression in our words and deeds in our daily lives.

Help us, O Lord, not to idealize the birth of the Savior so much that we will forget that He came into a real world of sin and suffering like ours--a world of oppression, poverty, drunkenness, prostitution, slavery, and death--Rachael weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not. But help us, too, not to be so overcome by bitterness and despair over the condition of our own lives and of the world we live in, that we will forget the light of the star and the song of the angels and the baby lying in a manger. O Lord, help us to bring the two together even as Thou hast brought them together--giving light to a dark world, and a Savior for sinners like we are.

So whatever we see and feel in ourselves or in our world that needs changing, may we know that it was for this that Christ was born. We can then rejoice in His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection. May we enlist anew as His followers--His full time disciples, making Him the Lord of our lives, our careers, our marriages, our families, our business, our youth, our age--and at last the Lord of death and destiny.

May this Christmas for us not be only a brief interlude of good cheer in the midst of a grim and unhappy life. But because we have received the gift of Thy salvation in Christ, may it be a whole new life in a whole new world. All that we ask is in Jesus' name. Amen

COMMITMENT

Eternal God, our Father, we would listen again to Jesus' warning and promising words: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear". We know that the hymns we sing and the Scripture we read are given to make us wise unto salvation. But so often they seem to us only dead words because we have not been made alive through the Holy Spirit. The world has been too much with us. We have spent our money for that which is not bread and our labor for that which does not satisfy. We have sought the pleasures of the flesh rather than the life of the Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, and make us alive to the things of God so that spirit and flesh, soul and body, heaven and earth can be made new.

We thank Thee for the invitation of the Gospel. It is hard to believe that we are invited to come just as we are--we want to wait until we are better--until we have changed--But the good news of the gospel is that we can come to Thee just as we are, without one plea but that thy blood was shed for us, and that we are invited to come. We thank Thee for the power of the gospel, that it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. This, too, our Father, is hard to believe. For we want to be able to explain everything and fit it into our own patterns of thought. Help us this day, perhaps for the first time, to step out on faith, for how can we know whether faith works unless we give it the test? As we believe, in a skeptical world, help our unbelief. We thank Thee for the challenge of the gospel. Here we know is where we fall down the most. We have so much to make us happy, like the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. We have tried to live as best we could under the circumstances. But we know we lack something yet. And, O Lord, we know that what we lack is commitment. "Go sell all you have and give it to the poor; and come take up your cross and follow me." When the gospel has made its demands upon us to change our thoughts, our habits, our patterns of living, we have turned away from Jesus like the rich young ruler. And we, like him, are sorrowful and will remain so until we are willing to make our commitment complete. Help us all, dear Father, to take a step beyond church membership with its formal duties to discipleship with its new life in a new world with a new reason for living and a new hope for the future.

We make this prayer, not for ourselves alone, but for all those who care and those who do not care--and we make it for the whole world--for America, our native land, but also for the lands beyond the seas. Amen.

A Prayer for Help

O Lord and Father of us all - but especially of those who believe - help our unbelief - help our worship - help our seeing and our hearing - help our praying. We remember the promise of the Scriptures: "The Spirit comes to help us, weak as we are, for we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us, in groans that words cannot express." We praise Thee for this promise as we try to pray.
Lord, in the midst of all the wonders of the world - man's creative genius and all the discoveries that have blessed our lives - in the midst of all this, we still must confess how frail we are. We control so much, and yet so little. If we live a long life, it is but less than a day in your sight. We accomplish so much and possess so much and seek so much more, but it profits us nothing if we gain the whole world and lose our souls. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Let this hour of worship in this house be a time of awakening and renewal of life for all of us. Save us from judgement of others that breaks our fellowship - and help us to remember that we cannot even judge ourselves - only God is our judge and he is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. We thank you for the kind of grace that frees us to accept ourselves and others - as you have accepted us - the kind of grace that enables us to acknowledge our failures and to make a new beginning.
Now, O Lord, we commit to you all the things that well up within us to hurt and destroy. We pray especially for those who know today, as they did not know a little while ago, that death is an enemy. We pray for those who are sick of body or of mind; for those who are discouraged or depressed; for those who are fighting a hard battle with temptation; for those who have tried and failed; for those who have a problem that neither we nor they understand but that hurts just the same. O Lord, enable us to believe that your grace is sufficient for us - that your strength is made perfect in weakness.
Hear all our prayers, spoken and unspoken, and answer us for they great mercies' sake, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

GUIDANCE

Eternal Father, we do this so often that it may become only routine, a meaingless habit. Come and waken us from the sleep of death, and show us the vision of Thyself in glory. May we see Thee as did Isaiah of old, high and lifted up, Thy presence filling all this place where we are praying--and may our eyes, as did his, see beyond the common sights of earth to behold the angels who serve Thee and who cover their faces before Thee, crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory".

We know this is the only way we can see ourselves for what we are and know our need of Thy cleansing, Thy healing, Thy forgiveness--and discover your mission for us in this life and in the world to come. We compare ourselves with others, usually in a favorable light. We are blind to human sin and need. O God, help us to see that only in Thy light can we see light. Only in the vision of Thy holiness can we see our own condition and the true issues of our common life. So we beseech you to break the spell of that which blinds our eyes, paralyzes our wills, and unnerves our hands.

Help us to take our faith out of a little corner of our lives--confined to one day in the week now and then--and bring faith to all of life in thought, word, and deed.

As we present ourselves, soul and body, before Thee for healing, we would remember others who need Thee and need our prayers: Those in hospitals and other institutions of care; those in places of conflict and danger; the President of the United States and all in authority over us in these troubled times; our school administrators and teachers, parents, and young people who are being called on to make changes in the pattern of our living. And especially would we pray today for those who wander over the earth in search of life down ways of their own devising, forgetting that Thou hast set eternity in our hearts and we will never find rest until we rest in Thee. We make this prayer in His name. Amen.

SERENITY

Eternal God, our Father, we thank you that in the stillness of this hour we can gather together with Thee and one another. The world is so noisy, and we are so busy! Here we can find ourselves again, and better still, we can be found of Thee. We believe it is this place where we pray and hear your gospel that enables us to hear your voice out in the world above the noise of selfish strife.

We thank you today for thy hand of love which guides our lives, even when we are not aware of it. We confess our sin of willfulness. We have acted as if life were created by us, belongs to us, and is under our control. But when we live like this for long, we come to know how wrong we are, for our lives break down without and within. We have discovered, our Father, through bitter experience, that when we will not be governed by God, we will be ruled by tyrants--tyrants in government and tyrants in our own selves. We know the power of selfishness over us--our tempers, our greed, our self-indulgence, and we know what things like drugs and alcohol do to us. We are seeking meaning for our lives and release from our tense ways, but the things we resort to bring only hurt to ourselves and others. O Lord, may we have the strength and wisdom this very hour to forsake the artificial and unhappy life for the life that is life indeed within the love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

What we pray for ourselves we pray for all of our strife-torn world. Teach us how to seek peace and pursue it--in the world and among the races in our own land--and even in our neighborhoods and in the circle of our own families and friends.

We pray today for our loved ones who are away from us in military service. It is hard, our Father, to know peace when those we love are far away, but help us to know that in Jesus' keeping we are safe, and they. We pray for those who are bereaved--may they be comforted with the comfort which has comforted us in our own time of desolation. Bless the sick with your healing touch--and the aging and lonely with your companionship. And above all else, may any here today who know they are lost and wandering, find their true home in you and your salvation. All that we ask is in His name. Amen

A PRAYER FOR GRADUATES

Eternal God, our Father, we seek Thy presence here on this meaningful occasion. Give to us, webeseech Thee, an awareness of the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us in this moment:

Apostles, prophets and martyrs who bequeathed to us a worthy faith;

Pilgrim feet that beat a thoroughfare for freedom across the wilderness;

Patriots whose dreams saw beyond their years;

Defenders of our liberties who sacrificed their own dreams that we

might realize ours;

Pioneers of the mind who have left us the benefit of their discoveries,

enabling us to continue the search for truth on this campus.

For the rich heritage of the past we give Thee the praise of our hearts!

Especially do we thank Thee for those who are near us now and mean

so much to us:

The faculty and staff of this University who have guided us through the

discovered realm of learning;

Our parents who have given and given and given again that we might

come to this happy hour;

And friends whom we will not forget though the journey of life be long

and hard.

Truly, O Lord, others have labored and we have entered into their

labors.

Now take away from us, we implore Thee, all selfish pride of success and all fear of failure. Save us from the acceptance of a happy youth and a trained mind without a sense of obligation both to man and to Thee. Give us the wisdom to plan our lives within Thy greater plan for us and all mankind. And when the storms are raging sore around us, may we always be able to hear Thee saying, "It is I, be not afraid."

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with Thy most gracious favor, and further us with Thy continual help, that in all our works, begun, continued and ended in Thee, we may live to glorify Thy name and finally by Thy mercy obtain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

An Advent Prayer

Eternal God, our Father, as we bow our heads, come to us with a fresh awareness; as we close our eyes, give us the vision of Thyself and Thy glory. Tear the idols from Thy throne in our hearts that we may worship only Thee. Break the hold of self which we have allowed to grow stronger daily by thoughts, words, and deeds that center in our own welfare and comfort. Bring us to say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ---".

We praise Thee today that we are entering another season when we are called to celebrate the birth of Thy Son and to anchor our hope in His second coming in triumph. Help us to know that His light is still shining in the darkness and that the darkness will never put it out. Enable us, we pray, to hear the songs of angels over the noise and clamor of our world. O Lord, can we be taught to believe that the power of Thy Son's cry in the manger is greater than Herod's murder of the little children? This Christmas season may it be different with us! The world is still the same in our treatment of Him; but help us to know that He is still the same yesterday, today, and forever in His redeeming love and power. We thank Thee that we have this altar, this place of worship where we can come and have our faith renewed--and we thank Thee for that world out yonder which calls us to witness and serve Him in newness of life. May we not miss it again--but know that:

"Tho Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
If He is not born in us, our souls are all forlorn."

Hear our prayer for those whose needs are the greatest now: We pray for the sick, the suffering, the burdened, the mourners, the dying. We pray for the lost, the wandering and the seeking. We pray for a sure witness to our faith to the greater glory of God. And we pray that Thou wilt keep our faith alive to the hope of a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwell righteousness. All our prayers we say in His name. Amen

A Prayer for Strength

Eternal God, our Father, since last we came to Thee, so much has happened. We need time for worship and renewal with Thee. The world is so much with us: Temptations assault us--so many voices cry to us that we mistake the voice of the deceiver for the voice of God--Many false prophets have gone out into the world, even as we have been warned. So we come because we are in need. We come because we believe that God is a mighty fortress, a bulwark never failing, and that Thou art our helper amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

May we hear the sound of a trumpet that awakens us from our lethargy and alerts us to life. Show us what we are, O Lord, and call us to what we can be! Lay upon our hearts the place of service in thy Kingdom which waits to be filled by us. Help us to leave our selfish pursuit of the things that pass away, and to give ourselves to the things that will always remain---faith, hope, love.

We know it is not possible to give words to all the prayers in our hearts. Some of us are confused---some of us feel guilty---some of us have a false sense of security---some of us are proud---some of us are afraid: afraid of ourselves and afraid of others; afraid of what we see happening in our world---in our homes, our schools, even our churches. We hardly know how to give expression to our prayers. So we only pray that everyone of us will know the promise of thy Word, that "whoever believes in Him will never be disappointed".

So, O Lord, strengthen our faith--our belief--and help us to take that next step of acting in love, believing that He who has begun a good work in us will carry it on until it is finished in the day of Jesus Christ. All that we ask is in His name. Amen

Doubt

Eternal God, our Father, we come to this time of prayer full of need. We are so wavering in our faith, so inconstant in the quality of our discipleship.

Sometimes the shadows lie deep over our lives and the path seems rough to the goal. But we believe we can come today full of thanksgiving that there is forgiveness with Thee as we cry out with the Psalmist, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, according to Thy loving kindness; according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out our transgressions....wash us and we shall be whiter than snow." Lead us to the Rock that is higher than we are.

We confess that the swirling currents of the world's life around us often threaten to engulf us. Even when we want to know Thy will and follow Thee, we find it hard to be free from the pull of selfishness and pride and lust. Help us to remember the words of our Lord that the way is narrow that leads to life...and He who endures to the end shall be saved. So keep our feet on the way because it is the way to the life for which we yearn; and give us the endurance that leads at last to salvation and the City of our God forevermore.

We lift up to Thee, the Great Physician, the sick and sorrowing and those dear to us in our circle of family and friends. May none feel friendless or alone, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. Beyond our borders, give us concern for the strife-torn places of the world where Thy children suffer because we cannot or will not seek the way of peace and brotherhood. Consecrate us to the cause of peace in the name of Him who came to break down the walls that divide us and make us His own.

O Lord, may all of us feel included. When we pray for a sense of responsibility for our task here, may all of us feel and take a share of that responsibility; and when the call comes to serve and give, may each and everyone of answer to his own name before Thee. Pour out Thy Spirit upon us all, and all that we ask in Jesus' name. Amen

A CHRISTMAS PRAYER

Eternal God, our Father, we bow before Thee and the ineffable mystery of this Christmas story. There are no words we can find to express the longings of our hearts and no way we can find to explain how Thou hast become man to meet our deepest need.

We only know that He who came has poured a stream of redeeming love into our own polluted hearts and into the dark waters of history--and that it is possible in Him to be pure again. We only know that He has brought new life to the world. We only know that to those who have received Him, He has given the power to become the sons of God.

O Lord, we speak so glibly of a generation gap between the young and old, but fail to see the great chasm which divides our world and our own lives from Thee. We want to love and to be loved, but we continue to hate and to do those things which breed hatred. We long for peace, but we make war. We cry for freedom and even demand it, but we do things and form habits which bring only bondage. We know Thou hast set eternity in our hearts, but we live for the things which are seen, temporal, and which last only for a moment. May we come to know once more this holy Christmastide that Jesus Christ was born for this--to bridge this chasm and to bring us once more to Thee for whom we were made.

As we pray in thanksgiving for those we love who are with us this Christmas, we would pray even more in intercession for those we love who are away from us. We pray especially for those separated by wars. Forgive us for a world that has not yet accepted Him who came to bring peace on earth. Show us, Father, and show the representatives of the nations the path of reconciliation and peace by way of the Cross and help us to walk in it. As we enjoy our own health, teach us to pray for the sick. And as we mingle in love with our families, help us to pray for those who must this Christmas look at a vacant chair.

Even so, O Lord, whatever our circumstances--in joy or sorrow, in plenty or in want, we would join with each other in coming once more with all the faithful to adore Him who is born the King of angels--Christ the Lord! It is in His name that we pray. Amen

Faith

Eternal God, our Father, your people come now to join our hearts in prayer before Thee. How mysterious and how wonderful is the thought of our coming to Thee! We cannot see Thee with our physical eye, yet nothing that we can see is more real or more enduring than God is. The beauties of this springtime call us to know that the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. These bodies we love so dearly are but the earthly house we live in, and they will be destroyed; but we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Our men fly through illimitable space, and we marvel at the wonders of the universe; but Thou art the Creator of all, and the whole creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

O Lord, we call upon all that is within us to glorify Thy holy name. How strange it is, but we know it is true: When we most defend ourselves, we are exposed and defenseless. When we try to save our lives, we lose life. When we are cool and calculating in the way we give of ourselves, life is given back to us in small measure, and we are unhappy and dissatisfied. When we pity ourselves and call attention to the more we give than others, we lose the blessing of the gift and become poor witnesses to Him who gave His all without counting the cost.

We thank Thee that Thou will come to us where we are and speak the word of deliverance to our special need: If we are crippled like the man by the pool of Bethesda; or sick like the epileptic boy; or concerned for our children like the parents of the man born blind; or living in immorality like the woman at the well; or selfish and grasping like Zaccheus; or wealthy and personable, but lost, like the rich young ruler; or learned but unaware of the world of the Spirit like Nicodemus--whatever our need , Thou dost come to us once more with the good news of a new life in a new world and in a kingdom which cannot be shaken. May all of us be open then to the message the Holy Spirit is ready to speak to our hearts. All this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen

To See Beyond

Eternal God, our Father, we thank you on this Father's Day that we can call you Father--our Father. From you has come our life and our love and our redemption. We praise you; we worship you; we give thanks to you for your great glory.

We are ashamed of the poverty of our own living. We have brought reproach on you and our fellow man. We can only pray that you will wash us clean with your forgiving grace. We have so often asked forgiveness for Christ's sake. This is our only sufficient plea. We cannot ask because we are worthy or because we have done enough good to earn your love. We can only ask forgiveness for Christ's sake--for the sake of Him who knew no sin.

"There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gates of heaven and let us in.
O dearly dearly has He loved, and we must love Him, too,
And trust in His redeeming blood and try His works to do."

We pray that you will come to us in a special way. May anyone overborne with earthly care and sorrow learn how to cast their burden on you and trust your constant care. And may any who are being called on to look closely into the face of death or bereavement know that the sting has been removed from death and victory from the grave by our conquering Lord.

Hear our every prayer, O Lord, spoken and unspoken. Awaken us from our sleep of carelessness and unconcern about the plight of our world and help us to care. Help us to care about war and poverty and injustice and hopelessness and despair; help us to care about Thy people who suffer. And right here where we live, give us eyes to see behind the walls of prisons and hospitals and nursing homes. Make us more disciplined in the use of our time, our money and our talents; and may we hear our Lord saying to us again as we seek for happiness and meaning in life: "He who saves his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's shall find it." All our prayers are said in His name. Amen

Church Repentance

Eternal God, give us a vision of Thy glory as we bow our heads and close our eyes in prayer. Sometimes we sing:
"I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay;
No angel visitant, no opening skies;
But take the dimness of my soul away."
So we ask not a vision of Thyself and Thy glory like Jacob's or like anybody else's. But, O Lord, give us our own vision of Thee--take the dimness of my soul away!

Deliver us from the sin of centering upon something external to ourselves that makes things wrong--and thus trying to take Thy searching eyes away from where the real wrong lies--within ourselves. O Lord, deep in our hearts we know it isn't the church alone that is wrong--it isn't something or other we don't like or that we disagree with--it isn't these things alone that are wrong. No Lord, it isn't the preacher--tho this preacher and every preacher is often a poor witness to the Gospel. But it isn't the preacher or the deacon--but it's me , O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. Come to me, and God be merciful to me, a sinner.

When we see ourselves like this--and see our world like this--then our hearts melt and God can save us, and we can see who our brother is and can love him whatever his circumstances and whatever the color of his skin.

O Lord, we surely must have many things on our minds as we come here in prayer. Listen to them now as we name our special needs to Thee.....We pray for every person. We pray for healing, whatever the wound, whatever the sickness. We pray for peace in our time. O Lord, revive Thy church and let the revival begin in me!

This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen

Confirmation

Lord God, Father in heaven, remind us that we here are in a great company with those who have fought the good fight and kept the faith and who now dwell in perpetual light. We meet with them and with Thee, the judge of us all--and with Jesus, who by the giving of Himself, redeemed us from our sins. May this wonderful realization of prayer and worship so sweep over us that we shall know we are in the holy of holies and can say:
"Holy, Holy, Holy, All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherabim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who wert, and art, and ever more shall be!"

We want to join the mighty chorus of those who know Thee and love Thee and serve Thee here. Take away the dimness of our souls, O Lord, and let thy Spirit fall afresh on us to melt us, mold us, and make us after they will.

May we learn how to be burdened with our own sins and shortcomings without despairing, because we know there is forgiveness with Thee. May we take seriously the sin of the world--the war, the oppression, the materialism, the lust, the greed--without taking it tragically, because we believe that Christ has broken the power of sin and reigns as Prince of Peace. May we be able to participate in the world Thou hast made, believing that "tho the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet". And may we be able to look sickness and sorrow and tragedy and death in the face, and know that these need not ever separate us from the love of God which we have seen in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We offer this prayer to Thee. We offer our most secret needs to Thee and pray that we may glorify Thy name and be drawn more completely to Thy will for us and for the world.

We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen

Prayer for the Quickening of the Spirit

Eternal God, Our Father, the source of all goodness and compassion, we confess our blindness in the presence of the world's great need, our deafness to the cries of our fellow man for understanding and love, our hardness of heart which chokes the springs of action.

We pray this day for the quickening of the Spirit which will give us hearts that divine, that understand, and hands which, like Thy hands, are stretched out to bring healing and wholeness to all people within our reach.

Enable us to work through doubt and fear, to recognize our rationalizations and to separate the mind of Christ from the reasoning of the world. Save us, we pray, from loss of nerve as we contemplate the size of the task before us, and help us to remember the Kingdom which is like a mustard seed and the reward of the cup of cold water given because we belong to him. We pray in His all prevailing name. Amen

A Prayer for Those Feeling the Weight of Guilt

Eternal God our Father, how desperately we need this time with you. We have spent so little time with you in prayer and meditation that our lives are out of balance.

Everyone of us is seeking life but in seeking it our own way, we have lost the life that is life indeed. We are beset by our guilty feelings from the past and filled with a foreboding anxiety of the future. We spend so much time seeking somebody to blame for what we are. O Lord, open the floodgates of your love for us - the love that we have seen in Christ, the love that breaks the power of sin that has been canceled in forgiveness, the love that secures the future because by His resurrection, he has abolished death and brought life and immortality by light for all of us. Show us today how to lay hold by faith on this life that is life indeed, this peace that passes understanding.

And having begun, O Lord, may we not turn back nor be discouraged by the doubt and cynicism of our time. We praise you for the promise of a never ending adventure with you that your love is like the ocean. We only see little of the ocean, a few miles distance from the rocky shore, but out there, beyond our eyes horizon, there is more. We only see a little of your loving, a few rich treasures from your mighty store, but o, out there beyond life's horizon, there is more; there is more! May we be dedicated to the seeking of that more to which you are calling us!

We pray for all, seen and unseen. We don't know each other's needs- the burdens we bear, the sorrows we share, the sickness we have, the loneliness we feel, the perplexing decisions we face, the guilt of our sins. We thank you that You know and You care. You can save and You can heal. Make this a time of healing grace and empowerment for living for all of us. All this we ask in His name. Amen

A Prayer for a Perplexing Time

Eternal God, Our Father, whose mercy is over all Thy works, hear now our prayer. We thank you for the remembrance that when we are not able to pray as we ought, your Spirit helps our infirmities with groanings which cannot be uttered.

We confess that we have done what we did not intend to do and we have left undone what we meant to do. Thou, O Lord, have mercy on us and forgive us. Deliver us, we beseech Thee, from the guilt and the power of sin and set us free to live a new life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When the sorrows of life strike us and we cannot explain what has happened to us , we thank Thee that nothing can separate us from the Love of Christ. Give us, we pray, the faith that does not murmur or complain beneath the chastening rod, but in the hour of grief or pain will lean upon its God.

Glory be to Thee that our Fathers trusted in Thee and were not put to shame. Today, when we are distressed and afraid amid the perplexities of a changing order, renew in us, we beseech Thee, the eternal verities of our faith. Give us a sense of history as His story whom we love and serve. And as the mantle of the prophet has fallen upon thy chosen ones always in the fullness of time, so give us faith that Thou wilt renew Thy church in our day. Make us willing and lest we only disturb with dissension, cause the roots of our concern to go deep in the soil of The revealing truth that in our world we may see the fruit of Thy righteous will and way.

Now, we wait for Thee. In Thee do we trust and in Thy word do we hope through Jesus Christ our Lord.