Testimony—is about telling the truth about our lives and the truth about God. Our prayer begins with questions and pauses—to help each of us reflect on what is true about we show up in the world and how God shows up in the world.
Let us now pray in a spirit of truth:
Why are you here today?
Do you come to give thanks?
Do you come because you had to?
Do you come out of habit?
Do you come out of obligation?
Do you come out of desperate need?
Tell God the truth. God’s Spirit will listen.
What obstacles kept you from God this week?
Anxiety about money? Illness? Upcoming surgery? Worry about your job? Anger with someone? Anger at something or everything? Lack of time? Feelings of burnout? Feelings of grief? Disappointment with God? Your own reluctance to lay open your heart even to God, the one who knows you better than you know yourself? Tell God the truth. God’s Spirit will listen.
Where did you meet God this week?
In worship? In your family? In a store? In your morning commute? On a street? On a trail? By water? By the rain? By wind? By the fall-like weather?
Tell God the truth. God’s Spirit will listen.*
Truth-telling God,
You know us and love us — even the parts of ourselves that we are too scared to be honest about. Search us. Know us. Heal us. Steady us in a world rocked by waves of uncertainty. A world at war. A world growing hotter. A world getting costlier for us all— especially the most vulnerable. A world that too often settles for comfortable lies than facing hard truths. A world so accustomed to untruths that we are tone-deaf to truth. Yet we cannot afford anything less than the truth.
Truth-telling God,
You inspire us and challenge us — to tell our stories more honestly, more boldly, and more lovingly. Stories about the way you are at work in our lives and in the world around us. Empower us with your Spirit to tell a better, truer story this week. For we cannot afford to tell stories that hold back the truth of our lives or you or the world around us. Help us bear witness this week with our words and with our bodies—testifying to the love that has made us and continues to make us.
We pray this in the name of Jesus—full of grace and truth—the one whose very words and body were a testimony to the love of God, 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.
*Portions of this prayer are selected from Lani Wright, Cottage Grove, Oregon and can be found at https:// practicingourfaith.org/practices/honoring-the-body