Recently a member of our church requested the following prayer be printed in Tidings.  It was offered during our Sunday worship a few weeks ago.

Great and wondrous God, we thank you for bringing us into being.  We thank you for bringing us into this new day.  While this day and everyday may have their worries and fears, they also have their hopes and joys.  Through all the experiences we have and will have, we thank you for being with us.  Even when we are not always sure, you are with us guiding, counseling, empowering and loving us.

We thank you for Jesus Christ your chosen one.  We thank you for how he shows you to us.  In him, we discover the way you judge and the way you show mercy.  In him, we also discover how we are to live if we are to live well.  O God, open our hearts and minds to truth.  Let Jesus speak to us.  Give us the strength of will to shut out the seductive voices that lead us away from hearing you call us to do justice and love mercy ourselves.  O God, give us the mind of Christ.  If we are tired, give us refreshment.  If we are weak, give us strength.  If we are proud, give us humility.  If we are confused, give us enlightenment.  If we are wasting time and energy, give us your work to do.  If we are discouraged, encourage us.

Merciful God, as we pray for ourselves, we also pray for others.  We remember those who struggle daily with difficult tasks.  We remember those who mourn losses in their lives–lost loves, lost loved ones, and lost opportunities.  We remember also those who celebrate new opportunities-new work, new insights, new relationships.

We remember those who are ill, frightened and lonely.  Give them peace and the sense of your comforting presence.  We also remember those for whom life is going well.  May they remember from whom all good comes.

We pray for those who govern us.  May they not be proud but humble in so great a responsibility.  May they see clearly the way to peace with justice in the world.  May they not eagerly judge other nations and ideologies but first become aware of the weaknesses and failures so common to us all.

We remember the people hurt by our self-serving as well as those who have hurt us.  May we find ways to clothe, feed, house and heal each other.  Gracious God, may your love go out to all people and may all be blessed by you.  These and all our prayers we make in Jesus name.