Our Shared Prayers September
September 28
September 21
September 14
September 7
O God, our Heavenly Parent and Sustainer,
We come to you through Jesus Christ our life giving Friend;
Grateful for the Sacred Spirit, who comforts us and lights our path;
We praise you for countless blessings that are ours each day:
For warm days and cool nights;
For summer rest and winter purpose;
For the beauty of each season;
And the relative predictability and the creative surprises it may offer.
Help us to be instruments in your hands:
To be listening for your voice;
To further your purposes;
To recognize your image in each person we meet;
To love our neighbours; to love and respect those who are different from us.
Our hearts are heavy when we think of the wars being fought in our world
Without concern for others and their needs,
Based on selfish ambitions we, too, must sometimes recognize in ourselves.
Help us to forgive those who hurt us, as we also long to be forgiven for our missteps, often unrecognized.
Please comfort and help those who suffer, whether through injustice, illness, misfortune. May we be ready to care and to respond.
Bless those, like Tom and Christine Poovong in Thailand, Werner and Joanne De Jong in Kenya, Gerald and Rie Neufeld in Japan, who have all left familiar comforts in order to make your name and your love known beyond our own small circles.
Everything we have and everything we do, depends on you. Make us quick to discern and prompt to do your will wherever we are.
In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, who left the beauty of heaven to live life among us and who walks with us through the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Written and shared by Doreen Neufeld, Trinity Mennonite Church