Shared Prayers For Others In Our Community

Here we are in Week 3 of Lent – moving towards the middle of our time of preparing our hearts to appreciate the wonder of the sacrifice of Jesus and His amazing resurrection from the dead, demonstrating the power of God’s love over all evil and death.  We join today in prayer with others around the globe:

We ask God to bring us close to Him again and deepen a spirit of humility and repentance in us so we are willing to be drawn close.

God of infinite goodness, throughout the ages you have persevered in claiming and reclaiming your people. Jesus embraced the power of death and broke its hold over your people. We ask You now to draw all people to yourself, that we who confess Jesus as Lord may put aside the deeds of death and accept the life of your kingdom. Renew for us your call to repentance, surround us with witnesses to aid us in our journey, and grant us the time to fashion our lives anew, through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

We are to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and love our neighbours as ourselves.  It’s not so easy to do that with the pressures of daily life and the extra pressures surrounding this time of pandemic and social isolation.  And so we ask for God’s help to love our neighbour.

God of infinite love, we thank you for this reminder of your love and your call that we be more patient, gentle and compassionate with others. We turn to you to ask for your help. Please soften our hearts. Help us to let go of judging others. Increase, O God, the spirit of neighborliness among us, that in peril we may uphold one another, in suffering tend to one another, and in homelessness, loneliness, or exile befriend one another. Grant us brave and enduring hearts that we may strengthen one another, until the disciplines and testing of these days are ended, and you again give peace in our time; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

And we continue to hear so many stories of those who struggle with depression and discouragement during these long months of the pandemic.  Let’s lift them up to the Lord shall we:

O God, almighty and merciful, you heal the broken-hearted, and turn the sadness of the sorrowful to joy, Let your fatherly goodness be upon all whom you have made. Remember in pity all those who are this day destitute, homeless, elderly, infirm, or forgotten. Bless the multitude of your poor. Lift up those who are cast down. Befriend innocent sufferers, and help them as they endure the effects these unjust wrongs bring. Cheer with hope all who are discouraged and downcast, and by your heavenly grace preserve from falling those whose poverty tempts them to sin. Though they be troubled on every side, suffer them not to be distressed; though they are perplexed, save them from despair.  Amen.

We’ve heard many reports of the pressures on families and escalated divorce rates during this past year.  Let’s pray for families, for healing, for reconciliation, for peace and for blessing – that families would be the strength and support to each other that God intended.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, you set the solitary in families: We commend to your continual care the homes in which your people dwell. Put far from them every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, and true godliness. Knit together in constant affection those who, in holy matrimony, have been made one flesh; turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the hearts of children to their parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among us all, that we may evermore be joined to one another with bonds of loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We’ll conclude our prayers together today with a prayer of commitment to God of all we are in relationship with Him and in service in His Kingdom.

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.