Please feel free to join us in prayer this week with the prayers we prayed in worship, Sunday, November 8, 2020:
Loving God,
you birthed this world in hope –
hope for a world that is healed and whole,
hope for lives lived together in love,
hope for a just ordering of life,
that makes sure that everyone has enough,
that everyone can live and thrive,
hope, that as imperfect as we are,
we might live into your hope for us,
and for our life together with you, forever.
For your abounding grace and love,
we give you thanks and praise.
We thank you for the life
you have given us to live together
in family, community, and nation.
We thank you for the freedoms
promised in this nation’s Constitution,
and this week,
for the opportunity to vote,
and to have a say.
We pray for all nations and for this nation.
Humble and empower us to make peace,
to love justice,
and to live lives of tender mercy.
We give thanks for all who have served their country,
and particularly this week,
for veterans and their families,
and all who serve sacrificially for the common good.
We pray for President-Elect Biden
and Vice President-Elect Harris,
and for all who have been elected this week.
Give them wisdom, compassion, and courage
to govern and to lead,
with heart, mind and strength
for the most vulnerable in our midst.
We pray for President Trump,
may you accompany him and help him find
a dignity-giving way to experience
completeness in his service.
We pray for shelter and strength for all people
in the storms of our day.
We pray for an end to pandemic,
for healing of those who are sick,
comfort for those who mourn,
strength for those in healing professions,
and renewed commitment,
to work for the well-being of each other.
We pray for an end to systemic racism,
giving thanks for glass-ceilings broken this week.
Give us a discerning spirit
to see our participation in those entrenched systems,
to dismantle what needs taking apart,
and to repair and rebuild a world
where all can live free.
We pray for this world in climate emergency,
Give us perseverance and discipline
to do the steady work
of abandoning ways of living that destroy the Earth,
and embracing ways that sustain, repair, and heal.
We bring you all the joys and concerns of our hearts,
steady on the sure foundation
of your love for us in Jesus Christ,
and ready to live into the hope you have
for the whole world,
joining our voices with all who have gone before,
praying the prayer that Jesus taught:
Our Father/Mother, 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 sins, as we forgive those who sin 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.