Sunday, February 16, 2014
Offered by Edwin Estevez, Pastoral Resident

God, who in Jesus became servant to all, we gather here as seekers and as ones who’ve wandered, as faint in our faith and as doubters, as strangers and friends, as people who know pain, fear, and loneliness.

We pray for a world that knows suffering and war, in Syria, Colombia, Russia, Iraq. For a world that experiences the evil of human trafficking, in Mexico, Thailand, Afghanistan. For cities that know discrimination, drugs, poverty, and gun violence—Chicago, Guatemala City, London, Beijing, and too many others.

For our own homes that know sexual abuse and alcohol abuse, depression, domestic violence and isolation, we pray, not with a great faith but a faint one, and we cling on this hope—that through us we might serve in your miracle working: the miracle of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, of stemming the tide of human trafficking; the miracle for mediating peace and practicing restorative justice in our prison system; the miracle of welcoming the other, of forgiveness and reconciliation.

We pray to you, each one of us, because we want to believe you hear us and are at work in the world, through us and by the power of your Spirit. Help our unbelief.

We pray that we might come to know that we are fully known by you, even before we knew ourselves, knit together in our mother’s womb, known through and through, just as we are, and that you know us to be redeemable from our sin, loved and never alone, we pray: Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church