Eternal God, to you we belong … forever and a day …
You are the God of tender words, to assure us of your mercy, to help us with your grace …
O LORD our God, your hand is upon our nation, in this season of elections … voices clamoring for our attention, our money, our vote … help us, we pray, to think carefully, to weigh and ponder the claims and counter-claims … help us, we pray, to think of Christ … to consider carefully the values we hold in his name … clear our eyes that we might see your goodness at work in all things … and hear your voice amid all the clamor.
O LORD our God, there are some who would impose a restrictive Christianity upon this nation - give them the grace of second thought, heal their wounds, sooth their fearful souls with Amazing Grace - the grace that sets us free.
We give thanks that Christ is universal … the Christ of all humanity, in all the matters of faith and prayer … your presence, O God, in the Mosque, your presence in the Temple, your presence in the Synagog … your presence everywhere … in every tear and every sigh … in every moment of love, and in the wretched hatreds so common to the human story … you are there, too … in the smallest notes of tenderness, to the largest moments of history, where freedom rings and liberty shines.
We pray for family and friends, O God … for healing, hope, and guidance … see us all through the days and nights of life … until our appointed end is met, and like all who have trod these weary and wonderful roads before us, to be gathered up in your everlasting arms.
Bless Westminster Presbyterian Church, dear God … we are grateful to be here, and we promise, with heart and soul, mind and body, to be faithful to your son, Jesus Christ, our blessed LORD and Savior … in his light, we see light … in his mercy, we gain hope … in his grace, we discover healing and fresh purpose.
Watch over us now in the remains of the day … see us through to the night, and grant us sleep … should it be your will, O God, awaken us anew for the morrow … for the week ahead, and the work awaiting - love to be given, love to be received.
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, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
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