Let us pray together…
Holy Father,
Our beloved community comes before you today to pray as one body, one voice seeking your face, your counsel, your presence, and your blessing. This week has been full of grief as we have watched the devastation just west of us. We are grateful for the lives spared in the tragedy of Hurricane Helene and grieve the lives upended and the lives lost. Many of us have ties to this region of our state and we sit in disbelief as the videos and photos roll in. Our hearts are broken, our minds are in turmoil, and our bodies are exhausted. Jehovah Rapha, God, our healer, we ask you to heal our hearts, minds, and bodies. In the midst of a dark and difficult time in our state, we are grateful for the reminder that “Soon will dawn a glorious morrow; soon will come the promised day…” We wait with unabated anticipation for that day!
Even in the middle of crisis, Father, you remind us of all that is good — new life born into our beloved community — and you have shown us this week what we can accomplish together. That no matter how many talents we have, when we lift them up to you together, you multiply them to fulfill the needs of this world. More than anything we are grateful for the helpers that have come – individuals, churches, organizations, the military, government agencies, first responders, and more – all those who dropped what they were doing at a moment’s notice and came running into the disaster to do whatever they could to help and minister and rescue and save. Jehovah God, our provider and protector, would you bring your loving protection around those helpers as they continue their work this week? And would you bring hope back into the mountains of our state, that every person affected would feel your presence and know that a brighter day is coming.
Would you also hold us up for the long haul? As with most disasters, there is not an easy fix. It will be weeks and months before we know the total extent of the devastation…weeks and months that will make it easy to forget or to become disillusioned and hopeless. Remind us that you have promised never to leave us and never to forsake us. And help us to hold up one another in the days and weeks to come.
Father, we are grateful you have promised that the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. So hear our prayer for our beloved state, and for those we know and love who are simultaneously grieving and rebuilding their lives.
As our attention is turned to the most urgent right now, help us to remember those in our community who live in need each and every day. Those who are unhoused, incarcerated, without employment, needing food and medical care. Show us the way to provide and care for them, even in the middle of other needs that feel insurmountable.
And hear our prayers for this nation, especially over the next few weeks. May we find ways to come together rather than divide. May we celebrate the things we have in common rather than argue about our differences. May we respect one another’s opinions, and the experiences and knowledge that formed those opinions. May we remember that we don’t all think alike, or feel the same, or hold the same values or opinions…and that’s okay. Let us love and celebrate one another as we learn from one another in openness and humble curiosity.
Even as we are so focused on our state and nation, Father, may we remember what is going on in the world at large as we pray for peace and healing in all nations. Today, as we celebrate world communion day, we pray for our brothers and sisters around the world and for the unity we share at Your table.
We also pray for all those in power, both here and abroad, that love and compassion will rule the day, and that wisdom and discernment will be the basis for decisions that affect us all.
Father, as we are together as one body in this beloved community today, we ask you to hear our prayers, as we pray in the way Jesus taught us, saying,
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.