Prayers of the Church, 7.12.09

As the deer long for flowing streams, so our souls long for you, O God. Our souls thirst for you, the living God. When shall we behold your face? We search for you, yet we don’t see. We look so hard, but we are focused on ourselves and the details of our lives and how you fit into them instead of how we fit into your kingdom. We can’t see the forest from the trees and even when we step back, we still see only trees. Our vision and our minds are polluted with all the clutter and minutia of our lives turned inward. Frustration and emptiness surround us.

We want to belong to something bigger and better than our current situations. We want our lives to mean something, to matter. Still, because we are focused on ourselves, we bounce around trying to decide what’s right for us, what true for us. We search and we pray to every god we can count, ever longing, ever seeking. First money is the answer, then self-indulgences, then fame. Everything we try eventually fails us and leaves us empty…still wanting, still searching.

But you, gentle God, never falter, never waiver. You continue to love us and wait patiently for our eyes to open, for our minds to grasp your presence. You send your servants to immerse us in your word, to help get our minds right, to teach us your love. As we begin to listen, as we begin to see…you are here, right in front of us all the time. You surround us with your beauty, true beauty; with your love, true love the only things that can completely satisfy us.

We experience you manifested in the life of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for the world and we have hope. We have hope in the word of the Lord. We have hope in the pierced hands and the torn side. We have hope in the empty tomb. We have hope in the risen savior.

-- Praise be to you, O God, for your steadfast love and goodness. --

In the silence, Father, hear our prayers of hope; amidst all our troubles and pain and joy and thanksgiving, hear our hope:


Bless our enemies, Father. Bless them and let them see you. Forgive us when we fail to show your love through us.

Bless our brothers and sisters in the Salvation Army. Lord, these people, the workers and volunteers, walk in the footsteps of Jesus, serving those whose lives are often so desperate. We raise them and those they serve before you. Strengthen and guide them as they do your will and care for your children.

And now we pray as the light of the world, the risen Savior, taught us to pray: