Sunday, March 27, 2011
Offered by Joyce Shin, Associate Pastor

The prophet Jeremiah tells us, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart.” Let us pray:

God of heaven and earth, we seek you with all our heart. We seek to know you in the handiwork of your creation. We marvel at the things you have made, both great and small. Sharpen our senses, O God, so that through sight, smell, and sound, taste and touch, we might come to appreciate the earth in its fullness.

It is not only in the beauty of nature, its symmetries and design, that we seek knowledge of you, O God. We seek to know you, especially the plans you have for us, when our vision is obscured. When we look at the world around us, at the situations sometimes of our own making, and can see neither a clear path nor a horizon of hope, then too we seek you with all our heart.

Where people have been shaken to their core by earthquake and now live with wreckage all around, lead them by a firm hand to security and restoration. Where people perceive a desert of possibilities, provide signs of new life. Where the vulnerable are exploited and left unprotected, reveal the work that we should undertake. Where injustice reigns, make the world its witness to bring it to light.

Make yourself known to us, O God. Not once for all time, but each and every day. Though you have spent your love on us, we know that you are not spent. You are pouring yourself into the world. Let your love make its way into our hearts, O God, for we want to be disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, loving one another just as he loved the world.

For the sake of your Son, our Lord, we pray this and the prayer he taught us to pray, saying, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church