Prayers of the Church, 2.28.10

Hear our prayers, O Lord. Give ear to our supplications in your faithfulness; answer us in your righteousness. Do not enter into judgment with your servants, for no one living is righteous before you.

We thank you for the gift that is the priesthood of all believers, for in this belief you give us freedom…freedom to serve and freedom to share. With our freedom -- our privilege -- comes responsibility.

Give us the maturity and the desire to embrace the privilege of being active Christians. Help us understand the gravity of our positions as your envoys. Give us the strength to stand fast in the face of personal and community adversity, in the face of evil. Remove the fear, the timidity, the self-consciousness that keep us from acting in your name.

Give our leaders the confidence and humility to share the priesthood of the church throughout the Christian community. Show them ways to teach, to enlighten, and to mentor those servants who are willing to take more active roles in Christian service.

Individually, we are weak and frail, but when we act as a body of believers, we glorify you more than we ever could alone. Strengthen us with a sense of community. Strengthen us with a sense of kinship. Help us to look to our brothers and sisters on our right and on our left and revel in the knowledge that we all serve the risen King, that we all have the same goals of furthering your kingdom on earth, and that we are much stronger when we work together.

Bless our enemies, Lord. Give us the interest and the insight to understand the rifts between us so we may learn to work, live, and serve together, under the banner of the risen King.

Forgive us our sins, Father, for they are many. Thank you for the grace that washes them away and makes us whole again, in your name.

The needs of our world and the challenges of your children are often more than we can bear alone. Yet, there is so much for which to be joyful, so much for which to be thankful. We take, but a moment of silence, to share some of the concerns as well as the joys that are in our hearts.


We pray your blessings on those around our world who suffer and continue to suffer from natural disasters like in Haiti, in Chile, and even in our own country. We ask that you motivate us to help as we can and that you give those who are afflicted the peace that only you can provide.

We bring before you now, God, the Ghana Christian Mission and its leaders, Enoch & Lydia Nyador. Bless their medical and physical needs, as well as their mission of sharing the gospel and providing medical care to the Ghanaian people around them.

And now we pray together as Jesus, the risen King, taught us to pray: