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O God who is with us even in our darkest hour,
we thank you for this day and the days we have spent
in your counsel.
O Lord, our days on this earth are so short in number,
yet how we waste them!
When our days are rich with success and health, we
feel we do not need you.
And when our days are filled with tragedy and
heartache, we bitterly shut you out.
Open our minds and hearts to the joy and comfort of
your Son, Jesus Christ.
Melt our icebergs of pride and resentment;
transform our petty complaints into creative concerns.
Keep us from expecting too much of each other and
demanding too much from you.
Help us bear our disappointments, doubts, and
frustrations with courage and grace,
rather than looking for someone to blame.
How difficult it is to take responsibility for our
own decisions, for our own situations, our own lives.
Yet, how else can we hope to change the ugliness of
the world?
Give us the strength of faith to confess our weaknesses
and to accept the mistakes of others.
Most of all, give us hope to keep on trying, go on
living, and continue loving in the name of him whose
love never dies. Amen.



Prayers About Time And Work (2)

You have called, Lord, and we have heard the sound
of your voice.
Give us the courage of the early disciples to respond
with the same eagerness and expectation,
to leave our familiar ways and venture the way of
faith,
to trust that you would not ask from us what you have
not already provided.
We cast our nets upon the waters and come back
empty-handed.
We spend so much time working, yet our work seems
pointless, unsatisfying, burdensome.
Transform our work into worship,
our play into prayer,
our sorrow into singing.
Fill our time full of your Spirit.
Give us a glimpse of your Kingdom shining through
the gray mist of our confusion.
May we sense you near to us,
arm around our shoulders,
pointing out the signs and sounds of your Kingdom
on earth.
May we learn how to tell time not from our watches
but from your word,
not from our success but our faithfulness,
not by what we gain but what we give.
Make us fishers of the human heart and disciples of
your love. Amen.



Prayers About Time And Work (3)

O Creator of all our days, you have given us time
to live and time to discover the meaning of our lives.
May we make good use of the time you have given us
to experience and express the depth of your love.
May we embrace each day as a gift from the Holy Spirit,
something sacred and special:
a day designed for renewed resolve;
a day to overcome our fears and reach out to someone;
a day to stretch our faith by trying something new;
a day to play with children, visit an older person,
hug a friend;
a day to do something unexpected, something generous
and kind;
a day to reconcile a long-standing grudge, to forgive
and let it go.
Teach us to count how few our days that we may gain
wisdom of heart and appreciate the opportunities of
each day to grow closer to you and closer to each
other.
Help us, O Lord, to prepare for the best of life
so we will be prepared for the worst,
to glorify Christ and enjoy him
so we will be confident of his friendship in our time
of need.
May we dance in the sun with your Spirit
so we can find our way at midnight,
so we can walk through the darkness with the light
of life, even your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.



Prayers About Time And Work (4)

O God of Life, we worship you not only with songs
of praise;
we worship you in our work, our daily toil, the labor
of our hearts.
We worship you in everything we say and do.
We pray that our worship may be acceptable in your
sight, that the effort we expend will not be in vain.
We pray that our work may provide life:
that someone's life will be made a little better,
that someone's pain will be eased,
that someone's load will be lighter.
So much of what we do seems so ordinary, O Lord.
Far from being a choir singing, "Hallelujahs,"
our work sounds like a snore in the pews!
Wake us to the movement of your spirit.
May we not lose heart in the living of our lives.
Remind us that it is not so much what we do
but why we do it, for whom, in whose glory.
And help us remember it is also important how we work.
When we work with joy and exuberance,
when we work faithfully and reliably,
when we work with honesty and integrity,
when we work cooperatively and with care,
then, O Lord, we work for you and through the leading
of your spirit.
Bless our work and our worship, we pray. Amen.



Prayers About Time And Work (5)

O Lord, you have made this day and called it good.
You have provided us with everything we need to make
it glorious.
Your tree of life is in full blossom, abundant with
the fruit for physical and spiritual nourishment.
But we sit under its shadow and wonder what to do!
We stand in the darkness without realizing we are
shaded from your dazzling light.
We sample the harvest of our hard work and forget
to be thankful for the generous return of our labors.
We forget there are others who work harder and get
back less.
And there are others who have stopped working because
of fatigue and a sense of futility.
O God, give us the heart that stretches into all the
world and takes the hands of brothers and sisters
who hunger and thirst in body, mind, and spirit for
the hope which can only come to us through Christ's
saving love.
Help us to reach deep into our own hearts as we reach
out to others and share with them the daily bread
you offer to us so generously.
May we hear the knock on the door.
May we see the beggar on the street.
May we sense the need of those who cry themselves
to sleep each night from the pain of hunger.
May your bread which is broken
be shared with all the world. Amen.