[As we sang “God of Grace and God of Glory” at an alum gathering at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio last week I was impressed with how prayerful those lyrics by Harry Emerson Fosdick are; and those lyrics inspired my pastoral prayer for today.]
God of Grace and Glory, please listen to your people praying. Pour your power upon us as we pray for the healing of brokenness and suffering everywhere – in our own hearts and minds and in relationships interpersonal and international in scale. You have planted the seeds of love in every human heart, but those seeds are threatened by draught, wild fire, earthquake and the ravages of unbelievable storms.
Please let our time of worship nourish the one true seed of your loving presence in us and in those we hold up in prayer. We feel surrounded by the forces of evil and long to be free from fears that shake the foundations of our faith. Send your Holy Spirit here to the church on the hill to free our hearts to praise you and serve you. Giving you the glory, let us not hide the Good News of your Salvation under a bushel, but let this congregation on the banks of the Scioto be a beacon of hope to a broken and discouraged world.
Lord listen to your people praying. Empower us to set an example as peacemakers to a world too long enslaved to war and violence as our only response to conflict and threat. Let us be leaders in finding ways to beat our guns into plowshares and our nuclear weapons into technologies to feed the starving masses and to power our planet with clean renewable energy. Instead of rattling our sabers let us put on the whole armor of God – righteousness, truth, peace, faith, and salvation to win the struggles within us and around us with selfishness, greed, injustice, and all that divides the very oneness of creation.
Strengthen us please, O God within each of us, to not lose hope when illness or despair sap our human energy. Remind us again that we can flip a switch with a simple word of prayer to connect to the one true source of hope that never fails us.
Lord, listen to your people praying and grant us wisdom and courage for the living of these days. We humbly ask these things in the name of the one who is the way and truth and life as we unite in one voice to pray the prayer he gave us……
Peacefully Harsh 