11.5.23 Prayers of Church & Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Prayers of Church & Community, November 5, 2023

Westminster Presbyterian Church - a bidding prayer!

Holy God, LORD of heaven and earth, creator of the stars and all the glory of our vast universe … down to the smallest elements, O God - the curve of a gull’s wing, the crash of an ocean wave, the laughter of child, and the hope that lives within our hearts.

We gather here, O LORD, as your people have done throughout the ages, in places of incredible beauty and size, in humble homes and woodland glades, in storefronts on the street, in mission stations around the world … in heat and light, cold and dark, in the best of times, in the worst of times.

Help us, we pray, to be your people, faithful, strong, and true … 

Help us, we pray, to bow down before your glory, that we need never bow down to the false gods of the day.

With grateful hearts, we lay our lives upon the altar of Christ, we give ourselves to his kingdom … we open our hearts to the love of the Holy Spirit, our minds to the wisdom of Scripture, our strength for the work at hand … we receive his bread, and drink his cup …. O LORD God, Almighty.

With humble pleas, and tears for the world … we pray:

For loved ones, family and friends … O LORD, hear our prayer.

For the children of our world … O LORD, hear our prayer.

For people of faith all around the world … for Muslims and Jews, Sikhs and Hindus, Buddhists and Christians … for all who strive for the better day, who practice the ancient arts of love, forgiveness, and peace … O LORD, hear our prayer.

For Westminster Presbyterian Church … O LORD, hear our prayer.

For our nation, and the nations of the world … O LORD, hear our prayer.

For those in despair, those who have given up, those for whom life is hard … those who can no longer cope, who are trapped in loneliness, who have given themselves to rage and bitterness … O LORD, hear our prayer.

For lands torn by war, lives shattered, homes destroyed … O LORD, hear our prayer.

For the dead, O God … in your glorious presence now they reside - we give thanks for their efforts, their love, their work … we solemnly promise to keep what they’ve entrusted to us, to promote and enlarge it, and when our time, O God, is no more, we’ll journey to be with them, while others take up our work … O LORD, hear our prayer.

You know our heart, O God, through and through … you were present in our conception and birth, you have watched our years unfold … you have laughed with us, and wept with us … you have journeyed with us on the bright side of life, you have held us in the fearsome times of loss, disappointment, and death … and we thank you … O LORD, hear our prayer.

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.