We await your coming, O Promised One, for you arrive with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, extending your counsel and peace.  We, your wandering children, long for these qualities; yet today we especially seek your holy peace, O God of Calm.  Despite your gracious bounty and mercy, our hearts remain restless this time of year.  Those ancient threats of wars and rumors of war still color our era.  The destitute, who have long waited for reprieve, remain in want. Evil and anger walk our streets, ready to pounce upon innocents who dare to voice differing views. Our youth are too often estranged from family, church, and community, living in danger within the boundaries of their neighborhoods and schools.  We travel an uneasy road, O Lord; therefore, we still rely on the word of the prophet who shares the good news that, even today, every mountain and hill will be made low and the rough places will become a plain. 

O God of Promise, come to us with your peace.

In our yearning, we indeed realize many of our present troubles are of our own making. As we linger here for you, could it be that you are also waiting — waiting for us to set things right? Surely you long for us to repent of our selfish ways, and to earnestly become part of that transformation we so desire.  We confess that we have been reticent to become involved when our efforts could make a real difference.  There are persons we have refused to love, harmful habits we have not bothered to alter, and doorways we have neglected to open.  Courage lies at the heart of peace-keeping, so give us resolve and boldness through the power of your Spirit, we pray, to will and to work for the good of your kingdom. Forgive our reticence, Good Lord, and fortify our efforts that they may be those that prepare the way of the Lord!

O God of Promise, may we strive for your peace.

We remember, Abiding One, when Jesus offered his words of solace to his disciples, it was in a time of tremendous turmoil.  Though he knew his own death was imminent, he spoke of that lasting peace that he himself embodied. Help us to know that the charge before us is to work in our temporal realm; yet may we also take hold of that most sacred gift of a lifetime: that unflappable peace of Christ. Set us on that path this season, we pray.  

O God of Promise, we yearn for your abiding peace.

The storms of life have overwhelmed so many, O Lord, and raging winds have broken even the strongest among us.  May the words of Christ the Comforter resound in the spirits of those who are lonely, confused, ill, grieving, and dying:  “Peace be still!” Soothe the souls of those who are frightened in every corner, we pray, and bring your light of hope to each darkened corner.  And receive also these earnest prayers of petition and praise brought to you by your people at Church Street:   

• Gratitude for prayers: Sister’s cancer scans negative
• Thankful that a mother’s dangerous infection has cleared
• Joy shared during the Advent Crafts Festival
• Grateful for generosity – many gifts delivered to Beacon of Hope families
• Thanksgiving: Ongoing mission work of the UMW
• All who are contributing to the Stewardship Campaign
• Gratitude: Meaningful Spiritual Life Advance Retreat for 70 youth
• Thankful: A stroke victim is much improved
• Prayers for safe delivery of first grandchild today
• Prayers for church couple recovering from Covid
• Young man suffering from PTSD, healing prayers please
• Solace for members grieving recent death of a brother
• God’s healing presence with members ill at home
• Relieving anxiety of daughter, estranged from her ill mother
• For doors of employment to open for a talented professional man
• Patience and healing for mother following colon surgery
• Beloved husband undergoing chemotherapy
• Church families grieving during the holidays
• Member enduring physical and emotional trials
• Healing of a family’s broken relationship
• Wisdom and strength for young mother enduring a painful separation 
• Solace and strength for one – end of long-term relationship
• God’s guidance and healing for a mother with cancer diagnosis 
• Continued strength for four members in cancer treatment 
• Four members struggling with harsh effects of Parkinson’s
• Healing prayers for adult daughter suffering dire illness

How blessed we are by the Prince of Peace! In the midst of our flaws, our misunderstandings, and our distress, he offers us that unshakable promise that we are never alone.  His hand is outstretched, as it was for his disciples so long ago, and he shares that peace that will never let us go.  In the name of the One Who Was, Who Is, and Who Is To Come, we make our 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.

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of July 4, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

We come to you this week, O God of Creation, full of praise and awe for the miracles that greet us each morning; the panoply of colors that peak in summer’s glory astound us with their shading and intensity. Even the dew on the delicate rose leaf and clover radiate your splendid grace. And at eventide, you blanket us with deepening layers of pink and gray, inviting us to enter your realm of solitude and peace.  Forgive us, we pray, when we overlook the treasures of hope and promise you spread out before us. Make keen our dull senses that we might bow in reverence each time we encounter your voice of encouragement, especially when it comes without words.

Unseen Companion, you prod us to move beyond the ordinary realm of thought and to center our lives around the mystery of your unfailing and eternal love.  In our heart of hearts, we do believe, and yet we confess our confidence falters when we consider the plight of our world. Hatred, both on foreign shores and here in our own land, has brought terrorism and savagery to new levels.  Economic, ethnic, and racial turmoil escalates. Send your healing to every fractured place, we pray, and plant that peace beyond understanding in the hearts of your people everywhere. As your church, teach us when to speak, when to challenge, and when to be silent.  We would be part of the reconciliation of our neighborhood and our world, though we most often choose the safer way. When our faith dims and our energy wanes, give us that daring courage of your first disciples. Remold us into unfailing witnesses who affirm and proclaim the worth and dignity of each living soul.

Your Son Jesus became one of us, that he might bear the burdens of this human life. And still today, in his consoling manner, he reminds us that there is no pain or suffering to be endured where he is not walking beside us.  There is much on our hearts as we lift up the victims in Miami housing disaster, those in the path of another tropical storm, others besieged by drought and wildfires, and all your children caught up in the relentless pandemic invading developing countries. Embrace all, O Christ, for you know each one by name.

Caring Listener, we know you hear every muffled prayer extended in your name, for you have been moving in the lives of your people at Church Street.  Receive these specific notes of thanksgiving that come from our hearts, and also be at work in the lives of those who call out to you as they face their individual challenges:

Thanksgivings:

• Prayers have resulted in a miraculous healing
• Thanksgiving for safe travel to family reunion
• One thankful for sustaining grace – final round of chemo
• Bereaved family has felt comfort of God’s presence
• An adult son’s depression has lifted through prayers
• Medical student thankful: critical exams completed
• Member celebrates birth of new great grandchild
• Medication & therapy helping a husband’s voice ailment
• Young couple excitedly plan an August wedding
• Caring members who visit the aging and infirm
• One celebrates offers of assistance for a church endeavor
• Patience is sustaining one during personal trials

Concerns:

• Solace for those whose family members nearing death
• Healing grace for a mother with bone cancer
• Healing beloved mother with cancer and easing of her pain
• Mending two broken relationships
• Continued prayers for brother with cancer
• Safety and guidance for all involved with M.A.D in the City youth mission
• Mercy and comfort for loved ones near death
• Courage & healing for member in radiation treatment
• Three families splintered by addiction
• Cherished husband in ICU, guidance for his wife
• Healing mercies for member beginning cancer treatment this week
• Parents both suffering major illnesses
• Direction for troubled teenage nephew
• Physical strength for wife and husband in physical therapy
• A brother’s spiritual growth and wisdom
• God’s presence with beloved sister in decline
• Healing for an ill couple, professional performers
• Guidance for wife and her husband with dementia
• Proper diagnosis: Young niece experienced 2nd seizure
• Son in ER with fainting episodes
• Elderly mother who suffered a fall

Love Beyond Imagining, by your sacred gift of life and your creation renewal, which come new every morning, we are honored. May the work we offer in your name this week be worthy of our calling. And whatever efforts are unworthy, touch with your immense grace, that they may be transformed for the greater good. All our named prayers and all those held secure in our hearts we offer in the name of our Savior and Redeemer who asked us to pray in this way:

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.