Compassionate and ever attentive God, we join the psalmist in waiting patiently for you, for we know by experience that you incline your ear to our prayers. Our lives are testimonies to your faithfulness and steadfast love.
We pray for all who find themselves in a desolate pit, in the miry bog of depression or extended illness or unemployment or family crisis, and seeming hopelessness. We pray for all who live in fear for their safety. Grant to them the solid rock of steadfast love, the firm footing of your presence even in the midst of the darkness.
By faith we sing:
He took my feet from the miry clay; Yes, He did! Yes, He did!
And placed them on the rock to stay; Yes, He did! Yes, He did!
On this special weekend we are mindful of those, who like Martin Luther King, Jr., have fought the good fight for equal rights, for freedom and for justice. We are mindful, especially in recent days, that this work is never complete. May we join the prayer of Abraham Joshua Heschel as we pray with our feet. For the work that made its way across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Alabama continues in the streets of Minneapolis and throughout our country even to this day. We offer prayers for all who tirelessly respond to Jesus’ call to welcome strangers, to love our enemies, and to stand courageously in the face of oppression.
By faith we sing:
He took my feet from the miry clay; Yes, He did! Yes, He did!
And placed them on the rock to stay; Yes, He did! Yes, He did!
Your promise, O God, is a promise of deliverance. And sometimes that is difficult to see when we are surrounded by such hatred and cruelty, such inequity and unchecked greed. But we hold by faith that the suffering of today will not last. We bear witness to Mary’s prophetic words, and pray with her that you would scatter the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, that you would bring down the powerful from their thrones, lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things. Until that day, we will not remain silent, but with courage and conviction we will sing of your steadfast love and faithfulness. We will not break faith with our awakened hearts, for we have seen with our own eyes your wondrous deeds.
By faith we sing:
He took my feet from the miry clay; Yes, He did! Yes, He did!
And placed them on the rock to stay; Yes, He did! Yes, He did!
We offer all these prayers in the name of the One whose life bore witness to the power of Love, the One who revealed your unconditional Love, the One who called us to the way of Love, even Jesus Christ, the One who taught us to pray 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.