Sundays after Easter
Prayer
Pastoral Prayers For All Seasons
Object:
Eternal King, how great you are. You have formed the universe with its countless stars, its unending distances, its numberless mysteries. You have formed the earth and all it possesses. The rushing, tumbling rivers are yours. The monstrous oceans and rolling seas are yours. The small contented lakes are yours. You have formed the hurricane that shreds our shorelines. With your finger you have cut and gouged great valleys and canyons into the face of the earth. You have formed the giant redwood trees, yet you are still the God of the fragrant rose petal and the common blade of grass. How great you are.
Incline your ear, O God. Hear us who penitently speak your name. The path of our lives has taken us from the mountain top to the thicket. We pray as we unite our souls with yours this hour, that we will find the path which leads to a better tomorrow. May we sense, as we come to the mountain top, that your grace alone has brought us there. And as we approach the thicket, that your grace alone will sustain us there.
Forgive us, Lord. Help us not to suffer under the illusion that we can fend for ourselves in matters of eternity. Protect us from misusing our gifts solely for our own ends. Accept us as your unworthy servants, use our brokenness of spirit as an entering place into our souls. Take what you can find within us and remold it into a new person, transformed through the name of Christ.
Be our constant resource in everyday routines. Undergird us by your love and judge us from your sense of justice and, at last, bring us into eternal fellowship with you. This we pray in the name of your Son. Amen.
Incline your ear, O God. Hear us who penitently speak your name. The path of our lives has taken us from the mountain top to the thicket. We pray as we unite our souls with yours this hour, that we will find the path which leads to a better tomorrow. May we sense, as we come to the mountain top, that your grace alone has brought us there. And as we approach the thicket, that your grace alone will sustain us there.
Forgive us, Lord. Help us not to suffer under the illusion that we can fend for ourselves in matters of eternity. Protect us from misusing our gifts solely for our own ends. Accept us as your unworthy servants, use our brokenness of spirit as an entering place into our souls. Take what you can find within us and remold it into a new person, transformed through the name of Christ.
Be our constant resource in everyday routines. Undergird us by your love and judge us from your sense of justice and, at last, bring us into eternal fellowship with you. This we pray in the name of your Son. Amen.
