Prayers of the Church, 6.19.16

God of all, we marvel at the beauty of your world.  Even with all its blemishes and scars, it is a majestic creation. 

And even though we are part of it, even though we are surrounded by it, many of us fail to see the world’s grandeur.  Instead, many of us see your world through the lens of addiction.

Regardless of the cause, our addictions can get in the way of serving you, of doing your will.  Our addictions can hurt those around us.   

Help us be honest with where we are, Lord.  Help us look starkly at ourselves and see the challenges we face.  At the same time, let us not be overcome by what we see, what we realize.  Do not let us be overcome by guilt and shame.  Instead, allow us to remember that you love us supremely and that you have made our imperfect lives white as snow in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ.

Forgive us for the hurt we cause others, and allow them to experience forgiveness for us, too.

If we fail, when we back-slide, remind us that you are there for us always, with open arms, calling us back to you.

Give us the gift of perseverance – to carry on, and to continue our efforts to be more Christ-like, even in with our feelings of inadequacy.  Help us ever strive to break the chains of bondage that often stand in the way of allowing us to do your will.

Thank you for our Christian family – our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.  Help us open ourselves up to them and allow them to surround us with love, just like the love that Jesus showed to us.

Help us move forward without fear, focusing our lives on service to your world, loving those around us, and glorifying you with our words and our deeds.

In the silence, gracious God, hear us.

Hear our cries, O God.  Listen to our prayers.

And now we pray together, as a family, the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray:

Prayers of the Church, 6.5.16

Great and majestic Lord,

We come before you today grateful for your limitless love and thankful for your unending grace.  Our actions or inaction would most certainly cause an earthly king to question our loyalty, to consider turning us away.

Selfish desire makes us prone to wander.

Hardship makes us prone to leave the God we love.

We grieve for loss.  We lament the passing of people and things we love.  In our sorrow, we can believe that you don’t exist, and in our mourning even worse – that this is what you are really like – the God of pain.

In our pain, people can try to comfort us with the consolations of religion.  We don’t want or need that!  We need Jesus Christ, not something that resembles Him. We need the close embrace of Christ-like brothers and sisters who will nurture us and point us toward the cross.

Help us remember the resurrection.  Help us remember you are the God of love – a love so deep that you gave up what you loved most for people like us.

In the silence, Father, hear our prayers of loss…….and hear our prayers of thanksgiving that your love is the only love that is pure, unselfish, and totally full of the grace that saves us.

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.

And now we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us: