Light of the world, chase away the darkness in our lives and in our hearts. Strengthen us to speak truth even if our voice shakes. Remind us why we hope and what we hope for because, “the world can’t be fixed now…it has to be healed. And healing is not an event. It’s a process” (Marianne Williamson).
Remind us what we’ve forgotten: that we are all co-inhabitants of the same world house and have to live together. Shift our thinking, so that we can see Your light in each and every person that comes our way.
As we wait for You, we dwell in the mystery of faith and the glory of the gospel: that You humbled Yourself and became one of us so that Hope would overcome anguish, regret and fear. You are the bridge that closes the gap between the divine and the human, the lost and the found, the sinners and the saints. That’s why we seek Your presence. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we live.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, Marianne Williamson, Prayer
Almighty One, You are the author of salvation and life everlasting. Thank You for laughter, love, friends and family. Thank You for being our shelter from a dark world. Thank You for being the only constant in our lives.
Help us to identify with You so that we can have the audacity to love each other as You love us. Challenge us to “read Your word, live Your word, and to be Your word” (Rachel Garcia) so that we can let go of our will and let Your will be done in our hearts and in this world.
Because of Christ, nothing and no one can take away any of the blessings that the Lord God has given us. The “death and resurrection of Jesus Christ removes the distinctions that we have created amongst ourselves” (Rachel Garcia) so that Love, not judgement or condemnation, can be the lens in which we see each person in this room and in our life as fellow children of the only living God.
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, Rachel Garcia
Almighty One, thank You for another sunrise. Another opportunity to experience and be the experience called life. We’re here because we don’t have all the answers. We’re here because the world is clouded by doubt and fear. We’re here because of You.
You are the bridge between hope and the hopeless. And right now we need hope. Hope for a world that can know peace. Hope for a world that can know love. Hope for a world that can know You.
“Our faith rests not in what we are, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done and in what He is now doing for all of us” (Charles H. Spurgeon). For there is no mistake or regret that we confess that will make God love us any less because even when we forget God, God never forgets us and holds us in the everlasting arms of love.
Tags: Charles H. Spurgeon, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer
Great Provider, we come to You today because we need You. We need Your strength. We need Your comfort. And we need peace in our hearts and minds that only You can provide. We’re just imperfect people loved by a perfect God. We need a new heart, a new spirit and a new understanding so that we can be more like You.
“When our faith wavers, when our trust withers, renew us O God. Grant us confidence in You, large enough to move mountains, deep enough to receive all the goodness that you give” (Bread for the Day 2015, p 346).
We can never go where You, Lord, are not. So open our minds so that we can side with the widow, the poor, the sick and the strangers among us who the world has kicked to the sidelines. Let’s share Your good news knowing that “if the faith that we share is not good news for everybody then it isn’t good news for anybody” (Rob Bell).
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, Prayer, Rob Bell
Great Redeemer, thank You for Your Living Word that abides within us. We’re sorry when we’re silent about our sins and all the ways that we stray from You. We pray that You would speak truth into our silence and open our ears to hear the whispers of Your Holy Spirit by anchoring us in Your Word.
Open our eyes to the glimpses of our own humanity so that we can understand “that there is not one thing that we can do to make God love us any more, or any thing that we can do to make God love us any less” (Rev. Ed Bacon). All we need to do is seek the One who is always seeking us.
Transcend the errors in our thoughts so that we can “put away all bitterness, wrath, malice and anger… (Show us how to) be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving of one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us” (Ephesians 4:31-32). Yes, we “sin continually. But Christ has died, and forever lives (within us), as our Redeemer, priest, advocate and King” (Martin Luther).
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Martin Luther, Prayer
Tree in front of my friend Jeff’s grave at Palm Mortuary, Las Vegas, NV.
Almighty God, thank You for time. Each moment is created because of You. So as the leaves fall down to the ground, let our sins fall and be swept away by the winds of Your Holy Spirit.
We’re sorry for messing up, for acting before thinking, for doing things to others that we would not want done to ourselves. You know all of our sins but You do not call us by our sin…You call us by our name with the full authority of Love. Love, that knew us before our creation. Love, that still knows us today. And Love that will be with us until the end of time.
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety or possessions – we cannot be free” (Thich Nhat Hang). But because of You, Jesus, we can let go of all these things and be led to new possibilities, new opportunities and to a new life.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, Thich Nhat Hang
LV Rescue Mission
Great Provider, “every good and perfect gift comes from You” (James 1:17). We thank You Lord for each moment from our first cry to our final breath. Bring us to a new way of understanding grace and love. Wrap our minds around, “a new awareness, discovery and consciousness that grace is already living inside of us” (Rev. Ed Bacon) and that in each moment we become a new creation because of Jesus Christ.
Untie the knots in our minds and hearts that keep us from experiencing God’s love in the here and now, because we cannot hold onto anything that once was or never was. We are, however, held by the constant love of God that frees us to let go of all earthly things and allows us to follow the path that leads to salvation and eternal life.
Your sacrifice on the cross and triumph from the grave frees us from the prison of our own false thoughts. “Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it” (Max Lucado) then we have faith that these prayers will make a difference.
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, James 1:17, Jesus Christ, lutheran, Max Lucado, Prayer, Reverend Ed Bacon
Memorial of four girls killed in the 16th Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham Alabama on September 15, 1963
Author of life, reconnect us to the human story by anchoring us in Your truth. The truth, that tells that us that we are all beloved children of the most high God. We have been right, we have been wrong, but we have always belonged to You O Lord.
Thank You for Your forgiveness and mercy. Deconstruct our insatiable need to conform to a world that is not our home. Teach us how to unlearn anything that is not of God. Bring us back to where all humanity is one family in the kingdom of God.
Unite our hearts so that we will love and serve all people living in the margins of life. “We will never change the world by going to church. We will only change the world by being the church” (Unfundamentalists Christians). So let us “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) using our words only when necessary.
Tags: bible, Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Gospel, Jesus, lutheran, Mark 16:15, Prayer
LV Rescue Mission
O Great Redeemer, thank You for another day. Thank You for Your forgiveness and Your mercy. Thank You for Your grace, that surrounds us no matter what we’ve done or not done. Lord, give us the wisdom to understand that in this house there is no class, no race, no gender or anything that would separate us from our creation. There is no us or them. There are only broken sinners in need of community with God and with each other.
Stop the fighting. Stop us from sharpening our knives while we confess our sins to You and to each other. It’s time to take care of the family of God. It’s time to take care of this world. It’s time to “take care of this house, for this house is a home for us all” (From the musical “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” by Alan Jay Lerner / Leonard Bernstein).
“This step is once again our first. There is no journey gone so far (that) we cannot stop and change direction. Our hands can choose to drop the knife. Our hearts can choose to stop the hating. Every moment of our life is the beginning” (From the musical “Children of Eden” by Stephen Schwartz) not the end of God’s dream for our lives.
Tags: Alan Jay Lerner, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Church, ELCA, Jesus, Leonard Berstein, lutheran, Prayer, Stephen Schwartz
Cathedral of St. Philip. Atlanta, GA.
Great Redeemer, You liberate us from our mistakes and allow us to reclaim our identity as children of God. And even though we would like to just jump into our destiny, guide us through each step of this journey and launch us into new possibilities.
Renew our commitment to the new covenant and help us to understand Your truth, especially when we don’t want to understand. Stop us from arguing with each other on who is right and who is wrong because “we cannot evangelize if we demonize each other” (T.D. Jakes). Bring us back to being the children of God who simply love as they are loved.
At some point in time, we will all have to face ourselves and see what we did with this life. Lord, speak into the silence, speak into the brokenness and speak into every uncomfortable moment so that our “life would speak more loudly than our lips”(William Ellery Channing). Let this world see more of You in each and everyone of us.
Tags: Children of God, Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, Spiritual, T.D. Jakes, William Ellery Channing
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