Prayers for today... July 15, 2018

God of All Creation, 

Your Son calls us friends, you call us family.  In this time of prayer we bring to you our earthly family, our friends, our neighbors across the church and across the world, and ourselves who need your care. 

Lord, we pray for those who are distant from you, and those who do not know you, who need your saving help and friendship. 

We pray for those who are in need of your healing in body, mind, spirit, and relationship.

God we come to you in gratitude for your peace and mercy in the world.  We give thanks for the end to the state of war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.  We thank you for the many people committed to understanding and reconciliation between peoples in our country and across the world.

God we ask especially today for your blessing on this community of faith, that we too may be representatives of your justice and mercy in the world.  God we ask that we may see you in the hungry and give them food, that we may see you in the sick and give them help and restoration, that we may see you in the abandoned and give them solidarity and accompaniment, that we may see you in the thirsty and give them water, that we may see you in the desperate and give them hope.

Our Heavenly Creator, you have blessed us with your presence; you have not left us trapped within ourselves, cut off from one another and from you. 

May this love of Christ compel us to turn out of ourselves and become part of the new creation which you have invited us into.  May we be part of your re-creating work where the world is stale and dark; to the needs right in front of us, in our church and our streets, to friends and family, to the voiceless victims, to the creation all around us.  Make us ready for the dawn that awaits the groaning world, when we will see you face to face. 

We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.