Sunday, April 26, 2009

April 26, 2009 - Prayers of the People

Dear God in heaven,
You are the Good Shepherd of our life …
You are the abiding presence …
You are love and you are peace …
You are struggle and you are energy …
You are the mystery that draws us on …
The mystery that baffles us …

We’ve all tried to not believe in you, O God …
When times were hard, we wondered if you were real.
When things went wrong and things fell apart, we thought we were abandoned by you, and so we tried to walk away from you, to not believe in you, maybe even rant and rave at you … “Who do you think you are treating me this way?”

But there’s no escape Lord …
You’ve made yourself a part of our life, and you’ve made our life a part of your love …
And that sort of frustrates us now and then …
But then think about …
We think about all the good times …
All the good things …
Moments of grace, joy and beauty …
Music to lift the soul …
A friend to comfort us …
We look back - how paths of righteousness unfolded before us when we had given up all hope of rescue …
How you were at work in all things for good …
Never on our timeline …
Nor as we shouted at you to do …
But you were never late … you are always on time!

There is no escape from you, O Lord … in life or in death …
No matter where, no matter what …
So, we finally work our way through it, LORD.
You help us.
We bow our heads once again and give our hearts to you.
What else can we do?
To whom else can we go?
Who else has the words of eternal life?

With a curious confidence won in the struggles of life, O God,
We turn to you with gratitude …
We know that we know that we know …
Because your love remains true and strong …
Your love is our guide and our guard …
In life and in death …
In body and soul …
Now and forever …
In the midnight hour when all seems lost …
In the morning sun when hope is born anew …
In the simple things of life …
That first cup of coffee in the morning …
A new friend on Facebook …
A new book, a new CD …
Or just a stroll along the Venice Beach Boardwalk …
Or a good spaghetti dinner …

To see your world with your eyes, O God …
To grow a little larger in Christ …
This is our prayer, dear God,
To grow larger in Christ …

And then who knows what …
Where you will take us …
What you will do through us …
How you will change the world because of us …

We would be yours today, all the more.
The salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Ambassadors for Christ in a weary and war-torn world …
To pray with Christ all the more …
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done …”

So may it be, O LORD, that our presence in the world might the presence of Christ – that neighbor and co-worker, friend and foe, might see something of Christ in us …
The character of a surrendered soul …
The aroma of a heart sacrificed upon the altar of your love.
The power of a mind given unto you.

O LORD our God, great is your name and greatly are you to be praised, now and forever more, until the end of the age, and all is made new, when praise shall be complete, and every tear wiped away … with a new heaven and a new earth … and all that you’ve made will be made anew … LORD, we want to be a part of that!

In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done …

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