Prayers of the People


Sunday, August 12, 2018

Offered by Judith L. Watt, Associate Pastor

Loving God, you are beyond our comprehension and beyond all human reason. We admit we are unable to know you completely, and yet you come into our lives and we are able to know you in part. We have glimpses and feelings and intuitions that you exist and that somehow your Spirit infuses our world and our lives. Holy God, we thank you for the glimpses and the wonder.

We give you thanks for the babies baptized today, reminding us of your love for us and also your call on our lives, your hand on our shoulders. We pray for their parents and all parents. Help them shoulder the worries of parenthood. We pray for children, our own and the children of the world, that every child be afforded education and health and safety.

We continue to pray for our earth, this place that has been home for us. Move us to take steps of care for this creation you have given us. Move our leaders and leaders around the world to react to the alarm that has been sounded. Be with the people enduring wildfires and drought and flood throughout the world and all the hardships that accompany those disasters.

We pray today for peace in war-torn lands. We pray for the people of South Sudan, that their tenuous peace treaty be upheld. Bring justice to all the neighborhoods of the world so that peace, true peace, can be sustained.

For those in our midst who have received health news that is worrisome, increase their trust. For those who have lost cherished loved ones, give comfort. For those with burdens too numerous to count, be their constant presence.

Great God, we give you thanks for relationships new and old, for creating us with the ability to love, for giving us compassionate hearts. No matter what the worry or anxiety is that swirls around us, remind us to keep choosing love, just as Jesus chose love. We pray in his name, saying together, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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