Eternal God, never far from us … around us, within us … above us and beneath us … behind us for where we’ve been … ahead of us for where we need to go …
Shed your light upon our nation, we pray … in these days of change and challenge … when the needs of many are so great … the language of the day disturbs us … loss of job and loss of home … declining income and reduced earnings … company closures and deep layoffs … benefits lost and medical costs on the rise … how will we manage, LORD? How will it end?
Bless, we pray, President Bush and President-Elect Obama … bless their meeting tomorrow … and that of Laura and Michelle … guide them in their words … bless them, we pray, in these important days of transition for our Democracy …
Bless, we pray, the members of Congress … the judicial system … those who guide Wall Street, who manage our investments … who buy and sell …
Cleanse, we pray, from the heart of our nation all thoughts of greed and self-advancement … we confess, O God, that we have been dazzled by wealth, and by wealth we have set our course … forgive us, we pray … forgive us for making an idol of such things … of forgetting those who fall behind and need a helping hand … forgive our crude lusts and our ceaseless desires … change us, we pray, by your mighty Spirit … and renew our covenant with one another … remind us, dear God, that we are our brother’s keeper …
In these days of change and challenge, we thank you for the changeless grace that undergirds our lives and holds our spirit … we thank you for Jesus Christ … for our faith and for our hope, for our families and our friends … and for the love that makes all things new …
We lift in prayer today the intimate and personal wants of our lives … our character of soul and mind, and our family relationships … there are griefs here to be comforted … anxieties to be assuaged … prosperity that should not make us proud … difficulties that should not cast us down … temptation that we should rise above … and burdens that need to be borne in faith and not bitterness.*
O God, according to the riches of your grace, minister unto us, we pray, that we might be your people all the more … ready and willing to serve as needed … faithful to Christ, and faithful to one another …
In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …
*Thanks to Harry Emerson Fosdick for most of this paragraph!
No comments:
Post a Comment