Day of Pentecost  |  Sunday, May 11, 2008
Offered by Joyce Shin, Associate Pastor

Holy God, we speak of your Spirit as wind and as fire because your Spirit is as fundamental to the church as it is to creation. From the beginning your Spirit has blown here and there; we do not know its path. We do know something of its power though—its power to make new things that never existed before; its power to enliven our hearts and stir us to action; its power to make us go where you lead us, even to the ends of the earth. We thank you for descending upon Christ’s disciples and breathing the church into life all those many years ago. We ask that you continue to move from heart to heart and from hand to hand, in the church and beyond. And we ask that you make visible your movement, for we want so much to see signs of your loving and life-giving activity in the world.

The world is yours, God. People in every part of the world are yours. God, we pray especially for those in Myanmar who have been overwhelmed by the loss of life and the destruction of home and livelihood. Dwell among them in spirit—a spirit so strong that life and love embodied will take the place of loss and destruction.

The world is yours, God. All principalities and powers of the world belong to you. God, we pray for governments, institutions, and people in power who do what they can to prevent your Spirit from taking root in peoples’ hearts and to keep people from confessing that you alone are sovereign in power and might. Bring down their defenses so that they can see more clearly their offenses against your people and against your spirit of freedom and grace.

The world is yours, God. All families on earth belong to you. God, we pray for our homes where love can be known for the first time. We thank you for entrusting parents with the awesome responsibility of caring for children, providing for them, teaching them, and loving them. Such responsibility is both a gift and a risk. On this Mother’s Day, we ask you to strengthen the sense of vocation that motherhood is and to call all of us, whether or not we are mothers, to create communities in which all families and children can flourish.

The world is yours, God. The church universal belongs to you. God, we pray on this Day of Pentecost for this church and for churches everywhere. Your Spirit is at work in the north, in the south, the east, and the west. Everywhere your people are listening for a gospel of grace; everywhere your people are looking for signs of new life. Bless the work of the church, Lord, that it can embody your spirit of grace and life in its mission, fellowship, teaching, and preaching.

The world is yours, God. We know this, and nothing could offer us greater comfort than this, for when we hear and read about the deep troubles of your world and when we experience troubles of our own, we rely on the knowledge that the whole world belongs to you and is in your loving care.

God, accept these prayers, and hear us as we pray also the prayer your Son taught us, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church