Prayer for Today – September 3

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

September 3, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord …
plans to give you hope and a future
Jeremiah 29:11

Hope of the World, you have called to us through the eons to take on your ministry of hope. To the world’s question: “Is this all there is?” we are to offer a resounding “No!” You have blessed us to become a blessing to those who are crying out for the food that satisfies and nourishes, the Bread of Life. We are not worthy of your trust and we often suffer from anxiety and cower in fear. Still, you have issued the invitation and, though trembling, we have accepted. You hope in us and we pray to be faithful. Yours is such a high calling that it keeps us on our knees.

Lord of All, hear our prayer.

O Voice of Solace, yes, there is much to cause our misgivings and apprehension in this era of rampant illness and chaos. But might you offer a respite from our weariness? What would it be like if we deserted our anxieties just for awhile? What if we avoided all those who fanned the flames of our fears? What if we shunned the broadcasts that heighten our alarm? What if we sought out only those voices of calm, confidence, and affirmation? What strange solace might permeate our spirits if at least one day each week we took complete refuge in the knowledge and love of God? Holy One, might you help us arrange such a time of regular renewal?

Lord of All, hear our prayer.

God of Tender Mercies, we glorify you for your mercy in receiving the pleas of our hearts. We celebrate all these personal gifts you have made possible in our lives . . . . . ; for those special ones you have sent to lighten our load . . . . . ; and for the reconciliations you have made possible . . . . . Hear also the deep cares that live in our hearts . . . . . And also attend to these joys and specific needs of those in your Church Street family:

  • Family celebrates newborn released from NICU & now home
  • Grateful for the life of cherished friend, buried on Saturday
  • Member thankful for a new home & that move is completed
  • One celebrating passing his professional licensure exams
  • Gratitude: Friend with Covid-19 greatly improved
  • Prayers appreciated: a misunderstanding has been cleared up
  • Safety for all educators & students working at home or in person
  • Please pray for a husband searching for a new job
  • Cherished mother entering hospice care & her loving family
  • Healing prayers: husband suffering from painful shingles
  • Comfort & wisdom for a daughter as her mother nears death
  • Prayers: family with Covid-19, healing of multiple complications
  • Pray that the hungry in our community might be sufficiently fed
  • Uncle isolated in MS nursing home, in rapid decline & his lonely wife
  • Relief of anxiety for one facing court proceeding & her family
  • Prayers for healing: 2 fathers with Covid-19, safety for their families
  • Friend in skilled nursing care & wife trying to make wise decisions

Your ways, O God, are indefinable, but we count you as our Greatest Hope, lenient in your mercy and bounteous in your compassion.

Lord of All, hear our prayer.

May our voices join with all your people throughout the earth, as we offer that prayer of Love’s Community, created and sustained through our Savior, Jesus Christ:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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Prayer for Today – September 2

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

September 2, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

And let us know be weary in well doing, for in
due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Gal. 6:9

Abiding God, we praise you for your enduring guidance. You sent Jesus, our Teacher and Messiah, to model for us the way of love. He asked us to seek out the least and the lost, to feed the hungry, to comfort the sick, to befriend the stranger and the outcast, to sow peace where there is strife, and to speak out for justice. Our efforts have been life-long, as you know, but in many ways we feel we have made such little difference. Thank you, Lord, for overlooking our meager crop. Remind us that the growing season is not quite over, and if we continue to tend the plantings, the good harvest will come.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

O God Beyond Our Understanding, although we strive for the good, we wonder why those old scraps of failure linger. Life is truly a muddle and we see our gaffes and blunders standing out quite vividly in our memory. It’s as if all those dark pieces are lying face-up on a table. Your hand of grace is at work, however, snapping those pieces together with our brighter moments:  the light and the dark, the good and the bad, the extraordinary and the mundane, the losses and the gains. Surprisingly, the pieces fit together nicely and a surprising picture begins to take shape. And we glimpse a certain beauty and peace reflected, as in a soothing landscape. Imprint that scene within us, we pray; then we will know in the end that the apostle’s teaching was correct: “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord.”

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We come into your presence to name those things that are uppermost in our hearts. You already know our deepest joys and our keenest hurts, yet you are eager to listen as we share our thoughts with you. For your benevolence in recent times, we humbly thank you, and for our concerns, we implore your mercy, particularly for . . . . . . . . . . . To these we add the joys and the trials of our people at Church Street:

  • Gratitude for prayers: a member’s depression is lifting
  • One rejoices that an old friendship has been renewed
  • Thankful that a friend with virus is vastly improved
  • Cancer survivor relieved- gastrointestinal exams were all clear
  • Grateful for prayers: friend with heart issues is now home
  • Member celebrates: a second surgery will not be required
  • One recovering from Monday surgery is feeling very well
  • Healing prayers: husband suffering from painful shingles
  • 2 NICU babies are gaining weight, but continue prayers
  • Prayers: family with Covid-19, healing of multiple complications
  • Member at Vanderbilt awaiting at-risk childbirth today
  • Continued prayers for safety: family members living in Kenosha, WI
  • Uncle isolated in MS nursing home, in rapid decline & his lonely wife
  • Relief of anxiety for one facing court proceeding
  • Prayers for healing: 3 fathers with Covid-19, safety for their families
  • A young relative & family, searching for effective cancer meds
  • Healing of dear friend diagnosed with auto-immune disease
  • Prayers for mother in assisted living, in very weak condition
  • Sudden death on Monday of a longtime friend, comfort for all
  • 2 mothers suffering with cancer-related pain & discomfort

O God of Possibilities, look with favor upon each one who calls out to you this day. We know you hear even the briefest plea uttered in your name. Illumine our hearts and renew our waning spirits as we again pray the words taught us by our Blessed Savior:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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Prayer for Today – September 1

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

September 1, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

If only, if only . . .  Lord, we too often fall into the habit of reducing our problems to one single element. If only my parents had been more loving; if only I could have afforded college; if only my spouse hadn’t left me; if only that disease had not overtaken me; if only I could have received that promotion. We spend our lives feeding that one thing that has clouded all our days. Though it is difficult, help us to understand that life, in all its complexities, cannot be reduced to one single influence. We live in the Now. And you are here with us, offering your assurance: “It is never too late for a new beginning.”

God of Newness, hear our prayer.

As we begin this day, you know, O Lord, that there will be instances that will test us, and that our weaknesses may again overtake us. In hastiness, we may speak that unkind or untrue word. In our confusion, we may err in our judgment. In our fatigue we may make victims of friends and loved ones. And though our day may be marked by false steps, we pray you would redeem whatever we do amiss and repurpose it for the greater good. And if that old “if only” mantra runs through our minds again, set us free to turn down the volume, through your miraculous grace.

God of Newness, hear our prayer.

Thank you, Good Lord, for your continued concern for our church family during these anxious times. We bring again our trials and pain to your doorstep of mercy, as you have so invited us to do. But as you breathe your newness into our pain, also receive the breath of gratitude we ourselves offer, for your mighty works have not gone unnoticed:

  • Gratitude for prayers: a member’s depression is lifting
  • Prayers appreciated: Two surgeries today were successful
  • Gratitude: young burn victim is home from the hospital
  • Thankful that member with long-term illness is regaining strength
  • Gratitude: an elderly mother slated to return home from rehab
  • Member gives thanks that a medical setback has been overcome
  • 2 NICU babies are gaining weight, but continued prayers please
  • Prayers: family with Covid-19, healing of multiple complications
  • Member at Vanderbilt awaiting at-risk childbirth on Wednesday
  • Comfort for family burying a beloved father & grandfather today
  • Continued prayers for safety: family members living in Kenosha, WI
  • Hope & healing for 2 members – cancer-related pain & nausea
  • Prayers for one seeking peace from extreme anxiety & depression
  • Relief of anxiety for one facing court proceeding, for dismissal of case
  • Prayers for healing: 2 fathers with Covid-19, safety for their families
  • A young relative & family, searching for effective cancer meds
  • Healing of dear friend diagnosed with auto-immune disease
  • Prayers for mother in assisted living, in very weak condition
  • Daughter whose father enters hospice care today; that all goes well

God of Newness, hear our prayer.

Strengthened by the Spirit, grant that we might rise to serve Christ this day, setting aside our old ways, and singing the song of the God of New Beginnings:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Prayer for Today – August 31

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

August 31, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

God has said:  “Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5b

At times, O Holy One, we come to you in prayer in the wrong spirit. Forgive us. Now and then we seek a guarantee that all our tomorrows will be safe, that little will be required of us, that misfortune will never block our future plans. We frequently ask that our strength alone will be sufficient to carry us through all the days ahead. But in your holy wisdom, you recognize that our own power is not enough; and through your support, you are teaching us in our human need. Grant that we might ask for sustenance for this one day only. May we envision Christ standing beside us at this one moment, inviting us to lean on his shoulder. And when we do accept his invitation, we find that there is strength enough – not ours alone, but power from on high.

O Constant One, hear our prayer.

This is another day, Faithful Companion, and with broken hearts, we admit that it is much the same as yesterday and the days before. You have created us for community, but our streets and neighborhoods are filled with hate and brutality, with mayhem and murder. The evils of racism and bigotry continue to eat away the soul of America. Heal us, Lord, before we destroy ourselves.

O Constant One, hear our prayer.

Companion, we pray, all those affected by Hurricane Laura, for each one working for their restoration. And, as we suffer the pandemic with our brothers and sisters across the globe, we give thanks for those working tirelessly on our behalf, for those seeking a cure. In your mercy, continue your watch, care over those in poverty-stricken regions everywhere who struggle with the illness, particularly in Spain, Brazil, and Iran. Give us your perseverance to continually work for the good of all who are in pain, depression, or suffering. And may we begin today.

O Constant One, hear our prayer.

O Voice of Silence, we sense your quiet ways and give witness to your hand of benevolence moving so quietly across our lives. Our hearts spill over as we recall those times when you have blessed us immeasurably . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ; and we are enveloped with solace as we recall the favors you have visited upon members of our church family. Receive once again our thanksgivings and our concerns, for you wait silently with open hands:

  • Gratitude: Gallbladder surgery turned out well, prayers appreciated
  • Thankful that one is recovering steadily from breast surgery
  • Prayers appreciated: a father’s medical tests revealed no problems
  • Praises: God’s diverse creation has paved the way for us to embrace diversity in humankind, that we might view & accept all others as we accept ourselves
  • Thankful that promising new caretaker for Sterchi Lodge has been hired
  • Grateful for prayers: cherished father died peacefully with family beside him
  • Dear friend in ICU is improving
  • Prayers for calm & courage to surround 2 members having surgery today
  • Protection of daughter & husband living near violence in Kenosha, WI
  • Hope & healing for 2 members with pain & nausea associated with cancer
  • Prayers for one seeking peace from extreme anxiety & depression
  • Prayers for healing: 2 fathers with Covid-19, safety for their families
  • Young father searching for effective cancer meds, comfort for his family
  • Healing of dear friend diagnosed with auto-immune disease
  • Prayers for reconciliation between a daughter & ill father
  • Continued healing of father recently divorced, for new doors to open
  • Prayers for two babies in NICU; healing of one in ICU, multiple complications
  • Close friend, healing of heart issues; healing for young burn victim
  • Lifting of depression for a young mother-to-be

We are never sure why, but many of us carry great burdens. We do not wish to shift our load to any other backs, however, for they are ours alone to deal with. But we simply bring them to you, for we know you care. Help us to bear our burdens with grace, without self-pity, but always with trust in the One who will never leave or forsake us. In the spirit of friendship, demonstrated so perfectly in Jesus, we now offer his prayer:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

Submit your prayer request confidentially by clicking here.

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Prayer for Today – August 27

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

August 27, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away,
yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary
troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweigh them all.
II Cor. 3:22-24 

O Divine Parent, most assuredly the apostle’s words hit home to us who feel hemmed in on many levels. The months go by and we sense that we are losing ground – one step forward and two steps back. We thought we had mapped out our lives so well, only to look in the mirror and find that the passing years and all those unanticipated complications have taken their toll. Where is that sublime span of ease we had marked on our calendars? Will there ever come a time when we can kick back and enjoy the fruits of our labor? We tumble so frequently these days and find that we are not as strong as we thought. Sadly, our faces tell the tale. But could that be your voice we hear in the distance, Jesus? “Blessed are those who fall, yet rise and begin again.” Yes, it must be, for who else would applaud such plodding as ours?

Hear us Lord, for your mercy is great.

O God Beyond Knowing and Naming, you take little notice of the outward appearance, but concern yourself with the contours of the heart. What changes do you note within us at this point? Have those inner fields of mercy shown signs of new growth? Is the shallow river of compassion now widening its banks? Are the valleys of forgiveness a lush green, as weedy personal slights are being expunged? And those peaks of praise – are they becoming taller as we more frequently glorify your name? We pray these evidences of renewal are indeed taking place, though unseen by human eye. And if so, we will cease our fretting about the superficial and the fleeting.  Instead we will rejoice at the rejuvenation within.

Hear us Lord, for your mercy is great.

As always, Caring One, we remember the specific blessings you have delivered during this week at hand . . . . . . . . . . And as your mercy knows no end, we offer our thanksgivings into your keeping, and also these concerns of your people at Church Street:

  • NICU baby is getting stronger, prayers greatly appreciated
  • Thanksgiving for recent connection with an old friend
  • Gratitude: recent heart tests reflect great improvement
  • Grateful that surgery on Wednesday went well, no surprises
  • Praises: friend evacuated by fire in CO now allowed to return home
  • Prayers for member undergoing gallbladder surgery today
  • Prayers for family journeying to ALA for a mother’s funeral
  • Cherished father near death, peace & comfort for family standing by
  • Protection of daughter & husband living near violence in Kenosha, WI
  • Comfort & healing for two dealing with pain associated with cancer
  • Prayers please: one seeking help for anxiety; health, family, & work issues
  • A sister facing leg amputation; a sister seeking diagnosis of health issues
  • Prayers for two tiny babies in NICU, grace & comfort for loving parents
  • Lift up two men who need to enter treatment for addiction
  • Dear friend in ICU in Charleston, losing blood, for diagnosis & healing
  • Close friend, healing of heart issues; healing for young burn victim
  • Healing of depression for both a daughter & a daughter-in-law
  • Two husbands dealing with anxiety & depression, for healing
  • Young relative searching for new medications to halt spreading cancer
  • Healing prayers for a father dealing with health-related anxiety
  • Close friend in ICU following surgery, that healing might come

God of All, thank you for receiving our concerns and for your willingness to be at work on our behalf. Fill us with that peace that passes all understanding this day. And open wide the windows of our souls that your mist of holy peace and transformation will flow over  us, spreading out across this land, binding up bitterness, moving across the oceans, raining down love, and enfolding your cherished people everywhere, even in lands we do not know.

Hear us Lord, for your mercy is great.

Collect all our prayers, Dearest Friend, just as you gather the pleas and praises of all your followers around the globe. We entrust them to your care, knowing you will guard them as sacred longings from your children, and that they are brought to you in the name of our Redeemer, who taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

Submit your prayer request confidentially by clicking here.

Join us for a Midday Devotion!

Click here to join us on Facebook at noon today for a devotion led by Youth Intern Ramsey Owens.

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Prayer for Today – August 26

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

August 26, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

I am the door. If anyone enters by me he will be saved
and will come in and go our freely and find pasture. John 10:9

O Keeper of the Keys, in the dampness of morning, there comes a certain clarity of thought that eludes us during the cluttered day. Here as the fog lifts we can see how far we’ve come by your grace, and just how many times you have opened doors for us to pass through. Along the passageways of rejection, despondency, anxiety, and grief you have unlocked doors of hope for us, revealing newness on the other side. We travel another corridor of confusion in the present time, as that is the way life is in this realm; but even now, if we are very still, we can hear your latchkey turning in the lock on the door of fear. We wait with patience, knowing we will find freedom on the other side.

Gracious God, hear our prayer.

Divine Gateway, we have seen time and again how you point the way to the portal of forgiveness. You do not keep score of our sins, nor record our pock-marked past; but our confessions sweep the threshold clean, that we may step through your doorway unencumbered to newness beyond. Grant us truth and boldness as we recall and name the ways in which we have not helped, and have even harmed, our brothers and sister in Christ . . . . . . .  Relegate these scrapped thoughts and deeds, we pray, to the dustbin of worthlessness, never again to be brought to light. And leaving all these remnants behind, clothe us in grace as we take up your banner of hope and walk on.

Gracious God, hear our prayer.

Enduring Entryway, as we remember your everlasting mercy in our own lives, we lift up all your people who are caught up in disaster, disturbance, and disease. Continue to strengthen the people of Iowa as they recover from tornado-like storms that have affected millions; watch over those in the path of Hurricane Laura on our southern coasts; assist those who have fled the wildfires in Colorado and California, watching in horror as their homes and businesses are destroyed; diffuse the anger and bitterness that has infected our major cities; send your comfort and healing to the suffering millions in Spain, Italy, England, and Iran — each pommeled by the virus, job losses, and hunger. To these we add these personal concerns (and also the joys) of members of our church family:

  • Mother is thankful for opportunity to visit with daughter in Chicago
  • Grateful for prayers: Family of 5 now healed of Covid-19
  • One is celebrating negative virus test
  • Friend with lung cancer is now much stronger
  • Protection of daughter & husband living near violence in Kenosha, WI
  • Prayers please: one seeking help for anxiety; health, family & work issues
  • Prayers for a sister laid off from work; a sister facing leg amputation
  • Prayers for two tiny babies in NICU, grace & comfort for loving parents
  • Two who need to seek treatment for lengthy & dangerous addictions
  • Son with knee injury, for correct diagnosis & treatment
  • Calm & wisdom for husband taking licensure exams this week
  • Healing of depression for both a daughter & a daughter-in-law
  • Two husbands dealing with anxiety & depression, for healing
  • Young relative searching for new medications to halt spreading cancer
  • Cherished mother coping with side effects of cancer medication
  • Healing prayers for a father dealing with health-related anxiety
  • A sister who searches for answers to her health problems
  • Guidance for loving son who is moving his father into to assisted living
  • Continued prayers: a very ill father at home & a father in hospice care
  • Healing grace for a teenage relative in treatment for extensive burns

You receive our prayers, Lord, spoken or unspoken, clumsy or eloquent, vague or explicit; for yours is a piercing love which knows what we need and what we desire long before we can frame the words.

Gracious God, hear our prayer.

And although we remain distanced, we are close together in the heart of God, and we now join our voices in the chorus of all who serve you, praying the ancient prayer of Jesus:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

Submit your prayer request confidentially by clicking here.

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Prayer for Today – August 25

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

August 25, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

O One Who Calls, we heard Jesus say, “Take up your cross and follow me.” These are not words we particularly want to hear, and we wonder just what our own particular cross might be. Could it be enduring the thankless job we do every day, tolerating the grumpy co-worker, or putting up with the annoying relative who repeats the same story at every gathering? In our self-pity, are we reducing the gravity of Jesus’ command? When Jesus told the crowds “Take up your cross,” we remember how many troubled followers turned away. Perhaps they understood the true cost of discipleship far better than we. Will we continue to speak for Christ when all other voices have gone silent? Are we really ready to be twisted and broken, bent and bleeding upon a cross? God willing, should such times come, may our answer be a resounding “Yes!”

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Empowering One, has the world ever been this convoluted, we ask? Has evil always been this pervasive? Have divisions ever been more bitter? Our earth seems to groan with the heaviness it carries. Bear us up on angel wings today, we pray, that we might lightly touch others who are most in danger of sinking into the bog. Help us drop your gentle seeds of hope, for sometimes a mere whiff of your glory is all one needs to awaken to life afresh, to resist the downward tug of darkness, to spring to freedom.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

O Heart of Hope, strew your seeds of hope on each one we carry in our hearts this day, for we believe in your power to change us, to make our relationships new, to save us from despair, to give us courage and strength. You meet us where we are, knowing we are of fragile frame. Forgive us for repeating our prayers for help, but we ask us to be patient in our waiting, and we try to be. Hear first our most recent thanksgivings, those benevolences you have brought our way:

  • Gratitude: mother in hospice care died peacefully yesterday at home
  • Thankful that dear friend’s surgery yesterday at UT was successful
  • Grateful that an elderly father’s heart issues require no intervention
  • Prayers appreciated: young father now home from the hospital
  • A student celebrates a negative virus test result
  • Prayers please: one seeking help for her anxiety; health, family, & work issues
  • Prayers for a sister unexpectedly laid off from her job
  • Prayers for two tiny babies in NICU, grace & comfort for loving parents
  • Adult son whose addictions are breaking up his family, prayers that he will earnestly seek treatment
  • Peace & support for three members awaiting cancer surgery
  • Healing of depression for a daughter & a daughter-in-law
  • Wisdom for all to wear masks & attend to safety measures to avoid the spread of Covid-19, especially in schools, colleges & other public places
  • Two members in cancer treatment, for easing of debilitating symptoms
  • A sister who searches for answers to her health problems
  • Guidance for loving son who is moving his father into assisted living
  • Hope & healing for discouraged close friend, awaiting heart test results
  • Prayers for resilience for loved ones isolated in residences, for caregivers
  • Continued prayers: a very ill father at home & a father in hospice care

O Lord, you live in that kingdom of kindness, a world where love rules over all, a world where enemies embrace, where distinctions between friend and foe evaporate in the light of your mercy. Through Christ, we have a vision of what your home is like, and somewhere in this day, may we glimpse a bit of that kingdom on this earth. And rejoicing in that hope, we offer the prayer of Jesus who taught us about that place where our will and your will are the same:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

Submit your prayer request confidentially by clicking here.

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Prayer for Today – August 24

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

August 24, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

O Beauty of Holiness, we are a tense people, eagerly answering the world’s cry for productivity. But you stop us in our tracks with the startling beauty you have sown around us. Lead us to touch the grass today, to treasure its sacred scent of greenness, to bless the dewdrop seeping into the hydrangea leaf, to praise the crimson geranium, to cherish the bowing leaves, chilled by the breeze. Your creation breathes a silent re-creation within us whenever we give it a chance. Make us new this day, make us holy.

Hear us Lord, for we trust in you.

God of All Kindness, because you gave us your only Son to share your love and to become our example, we know that you value us more deeply than we can comprehend. Therefore, we bow the knee of our hearts to ask anew for your deliverance of our nation. We are battling a fierce virus, bracing for elections, endeavoring to carry on our work, attempting to educate our children, and seeking ways to protect the older and most vulnerable among us. There are surely harsher challenges washing upon other shores, but we are grasping the frayed ends before us, wondering if our stamina will hold. Keep our hands and hearts steady, we pray, for we believe in your own time you will bind all things together for our good.

Hear us Lord, for we trust in you.

O One Who Travels With Us, we walk your road of mercy, knowing that you will lead us past fear to find hope, past loneliness to find companionship, past anger to find resolution, past suspicion to find trust. In that knowledge, we turn our thanksgivings over to your joy, our concerns over to your mercy, knowing you will keep our feet firm along the way:

  • Thankful that a vein procedure went smoothly
  • Family celebrates the birth of a new baby boy on Saturday
  • Gratitude: a husband is now home from the hospital
  • Prayers appreciated: granddaughter in ALA now healed of virus
  • A brother is thankful for a negative virus test
  • Grateful that ultrasound detected no new cancer
  • Cherished member celebrates her 100th birthday today
  • Prayers for two babies in NICU, grace & comfort for loving parents
  • Pray for the safety and success of all students & teachers as classes begin
  • Adult son whose addictions are breaking up his family, prayers that he will earnestly seek treatment
  • Prayers for a mother in hospice care who is failing, strength for her family
  • Peace & grace for three members awaiting cancer surgery
  • Healing of shoulder pain & patience for one recovering at home
  • Prayers for resilience for loved ones isolated in residences, for caregivers
  • Continued prayers: a very ill father at home & a father in hospice care
  • Wisdom for all to wear masks & attend to safety measures to avoid the spread of Covid-19, especially in schools, colleges & other public places
  • Easing of nausea & pain for one continuing new cancer treatment
  • Healing for three who are battling depression and anxiety

Loving God, thank you for the way you give us hope and courage beyond ourselves.

Hear us Lord, for we trust in you.

Gather up our prayers for our own church today, and for the church universal. And though we are separated, we remain one single body, united in spirit and in purpose, offering the words Jesus taught his first disciples:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.  Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

Submit your prayer request confidentially by clicking here.

Join us for a Midday Devotion!

CSUMC member and writer, teacher and storyteller Laura Still shares a midday devotion with us at noon today on our Facebook page. Click here!

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Prayer for Today – August 20

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

August 20, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

Heart of Heaven, you knew us and blessed us when we rested in our mother’s peaceful womb.  Through that soothing regularity of heartbeat, you were early teaching us the language of calm, preparing us for Jesus, who taught that peace is always the road to take. We often pine for that safe and secure womb where we didn’t have to make hard decisions, where violence and bloodshed were unknown to us. So much is happening around us that we do not understand. Help us to be brave enough to ask hard questions, to speak the truth, even in fear, and to be humble enough to listen to your voice speaking through others. Continue to soften the bitter edges of our faith, we pray, until our restless hearts and your heart are beating as one.

Hear us Lord, for your mercy is great.

Unlimited God, as we recall all that you continue to do for us, we confess that our concerns are too frequently insular, as we place ourselves at the hub of our daily prayers. Yes, you invited us to cast our cares upon you, but in so doing, we tend to forget that you want to do that new thing, not only in us, but in your beloved people living here or on foreign shores. We cannot limit your concern, Lord, and where you are, we must follow. Gone are the days of isolationism: We are our brother’s keeper! Help us become the catalyst for your love and light, that they will encircle our globe, even glowing in the darkest and most forgotten places. Bless those feet that carry your brightness to unknown lands; bless those hands that reach out in your name to heal and feed the orphan; bless those arms that enfold the war-weary masses who have no home; bless those tongues that boldly speak of Christ to communities with different languages and customs. We cannot even pronounce the names of most far-away stations, but you, who exist without limits, know each village, each name and each burden. And you will not rest until all your children are safely gathered in. Thank you, Lord, for honoring us by making us part of your holy mission.

Hear us Lord, for your mercy is great.

God on the Move, we come with hearts full, recognizing the ways you have been working in our lives throughout the past five months: healthy babies have been born, weddings have been celebrated, illnesses have been overcome, your gracious Spirit has embraced grieving families; worship and praise have taken place. Your love has held your church together and has taught us resilience. We realize that without your grace, we could not have come this far. Receive, we pray, our specific prayers of gratitude from your people of Church Street, and also our petitions for your hand of guidance and healing:

  • Thankful for $750 raised for Wesley House through Summer Serenade
  • Gratitude: a cancer survivor is improving with present medication
  • Thankful that a back injury can be healed without surgery
  • Gratitude for son’s launch to college out of town
  • Thanksgiving for a safe travel across the country to return to Knoxville
  • Appreciation for healthcare workers & 1st responders serving at risk
  • Thanksgiving: happy couple celebrated 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday
  • Prayers for one undergoing vein procedure today, that it will prove effective
  • Pray that a beloved wounded pet can learn to walk again
  • Easing of pain for member recovering from shoulder procedure
  • Husband & wife who recover from illnesses in rehab facility
  • Loved ones isolated in homes & residences, for hope & patience
  • Success & protection for all college students & professors
  • Continued prayers: a very ill father at home & a father in hospice care
  • Protection for educators, children & youth, as new school year begins
  • Easing of nausea & pain for one continuing new cancer treatment
  • That depression may lift for two young women
  • Member with chronic illness in hospital: for healing & lifting of spirits
  • Comfort and endurance for all loved ones recovering from Covid-19
  • Food shortage dilemma (North Korea) that slaughter of family dogs will cease

Abiding One, every so often we feel we need to apologize for sharing our many trials and challenges with you, but in our heart of hearts, we know there is no one else to whom we can turn. Truly, your capacity to receive our prayers and to lend your mercy is a marvel. Therefore, as you accept our humble utterances today, remember that we offer them with sincerest thanksgiving for the chance to turn to you in the name of our Friend and Brother Jesus, who taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.  Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

Submit your prayer request confidentially by clicking here.

Join us for a Midday Devotion!

Jenny Cross and Katryn Bancroft lead us today at noon on Facebook – join us then!

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Prayer for Today – August 19

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

August 19, 2020

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

 

Come down, O Love Divine, seek thou this soul of mine

and visit it with thine own ardor glowing;

O Comforter draw near, within my heart appear,

and kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

Creator of Love, sweep down among us once again, as you did at Pentecost, that we might inhale your very own breath. Fill our lungs, we pray, with that mysterious essence we cannot name, born of the Spirit world. Somehow when we chant the old verses which cannot be improved upon, our memories burn – the moments when your love first pricked our souls, moments when we knew beyond a doubt that our lives were irrevocably linked with yours, times when we fairly floated, so eager were we to be about your business. We know we can’t return to those rose-colored days, though these memories are hallowed, seared into our life stories. Instead you are ever doing a new thing: “Have you not seen? Have you not heard?” asked the prophet. Touch our eyes and our ears with your own glowing ardor, then we will be strangely warmed, vitally perceptive, and poised to move into your newness.

Love Divine, hear our prayer.

 

O let Love freely burn, will earthly passions turn

to dust and ashes in its heat consuming;

And let thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,

and clothe me round the while my path illuming.

O Coming Freedom, we are anchored to this earthly life with all its vicissitudes. It’s all we know for now, though Jesus speaks of that other place where God’s will is done, where bondage to earthly ways are broken. Perhaps if we simply cease our grappling for goods, power, and approval we would indeed see your kingdom come, where earth is subsumed in heaven’s glory. For now, we pray for that illumined path — but not for ourselves alone, for the Spirit gives us the mission of sharing your love with the world. Our petitions are many: for peoples existing under the thumbs of tyrants, refugees fleeing for their lives, those whose lives have been shattered because of natural or man-made disasters, families broken by the pandemic. Meet them in those lifeless places, we pray, giving growth to that everlasting ember of hope that lives deep within.

Love Divine, hear our prayer.

Still Spirit, you enfold us in your pure light, and we know your grace is quietly moving in the corners of our private lives. Receive our prayers of thanksgiving for the newness you bring; and also hear us as we name the other needs of our brothers and sisters at Church Street. Gather these, we pray, in your Spirit’s embrace:

  • Thankful that shoulder procedure went smoothly, please continue prayers
  • Mother sends gratitude for our preschool, as she is able to return to work
  • Friend rejoices, having completed long recovery following an accident
  • Gratitude for successful rotator cuff surgery on Monday
  • Nephew suffering from burns is improving, please continue prayers
  • Pray for loved ones isolated in homes & residences, for hope & endurance
  • Protection for a friend teaching in-person classes in Mississippi
  • Safety for all educators, children & youth as new school term begins
  • Two broken families, that God’s healing peace will be at work in each
  • Two with lingering cancer, for easing of pain & nausea
  • Healing of daughter ‘s increasing anxiety; a depressed daughter-in-law
  • Continued healing & lifting of spirits of member with chronic illness
  • Three families personally infected with the virus, for healing
  • Easing of food shortage (North Korea) to prevent slaughter of family dogs
  • Protection for mother & family who presently live in fear & turmoil
  • Healing of young granddaughter in Alabama college, healing of virus
  • Family coping with death of beloved husband to the virus
  • God’s grace to encircle sister recovering from stroke complications

What we cannot do for ourselves, we know the Spirit will do for us.

Love Divine, hear our prayer.

 

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,

shall far outlast the power of human telling;

For none can guess its grace, till Love create a place

wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.

Accept our breath-praise this day. Truly at times our hearts are full to bursting, but words get in the way and our gratitude is often lost in the telling. But we remember and you remember. Send us out afresh to be ambassadors of Love Divine, to our neighbors, families, coworkers, and all whom we meet along the way. In harmony may we lift the song of the Holy Spirit – unending and ageless:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.  Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

Submit your prayer request confidentially by clicking here.

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