Thoughts & Reflections

 God, our hearts are broken with pain at the senseless deaths caused by gun violence. Families mourn, children live in fear, and some in our nation respond by arming themselves with more guns with greater capacity to end life. Our disconnection and alienation has caused some to turn to guns for protection and safety. We ask that you touch our hearts with your love, heal our brokenness, and turn us away from violence toward peace. 

Help us to transform our own hearts and to seek peaceful ways of resolving our differences. Let our hands reach out and connect with those who feel alone, those who live in fear, and those suffering from mental illness. Let our voices be raised asking our legislators to enact gun laws to protect all in our society, especially those most vulnerable. Let our pens write messages demanding change while also scripting words of hope and transformation. We ask this in the name of the God who desires that we live together in peace.  

Amen. 

PRAYERS FOR HEALING 

We pray you, Master, be our help and protection.   Save the afflicted among us, have mercy on the lowly.   Raise up the fallen, show yourself to those in need. 

Heal the sick and bring back those who have strayed.   Fill the hungry, give freedom to prisoners.   Raise up the weak, console the fainthearted.  

Let all peoples acknowledge that you alone are God, and Jesus Christ is your Child, that we are your people, the sheep to whom you give pasture.  

Amen!

—Clement of Rome, from The Great Prayer (ca. AD 95–96)

Prayer for Comfort During Difficult Times

Heavenly Father, I feel alone, beaten up, tears fill my eyes, I toss and turn at night.

Words can’t express the ache in my heart. I feel pain every day.

I pray to you as I am desperate for help.

I need to know that you care that you love me, be my refuge from pain, replacing my distress with peace, and be my strength when I feel weak and find it hard to carry on.

Help me not to fear the future but to boldly trust that you are in control when my emotions plunge me down, and when I am in despair. And times when I can’t talk and don’t know what to say, help me to “Be still, and know that you are God”.

Be my comforter, my healer and bring me peace. In Jesus’ name, 

Amen.

Prayer for Advent

Lord God, only you can see into my heart and know that under all the busy-ness of my life, there is a deep longing to make this Advent one that welcomes you more deeply into my own life.

My heart desires the warmth of your love and my mind searches for your Light in the midst of the darkness.

Help me to be a peacemaker this Advent and to give special love to those who disagree with me.

Give me the strength and courage to forgive those who have hurt me. Help me to free my heart from the prison of my anger and hurt.

Amen.

To You, O God, we give thanks.

We give thanks for the morning, when joy comes to us.

We give thanks for the evening, when we meditate on your love.

We give thanks for the in-between, the working hours, the accomplishing hours, when we must practice gratitude amidst distraction and busyness.

We give thanks for the long dark of night, when our souls and bodies assimilate and regenerate.  

We give thanks for the people we love effortlessly, but also for the people who chafe and challenge us.

We give thanks for our enemies, who teach us to bless and forgive.

We give thanks for our families, who teach us grace and forbearance.

We give thanks for those whose lives we touch only momentarily - may we be a lasting blessing.

We give thanks for the boisterous, jubilant seasons. 

We give thanks for the subtle, quiet seasons. 

We give thanks for the seasons of difficulty and pain. 

May we emerge from each bearing the image of the ALL-Holy.

We give thanks both when we are certain, and when uncertainty plagues us; both in the black and white, and in the gray.

We give thanks to You, acknowledging that every drop and morsel that sustains us comes from Your hand; that our place in the universe exists because You created it; and that Your purposes exceed the bounds of our imagining.

Amen.

- Fran Pratt

PRAYERS FOR GUIDANCE

God, help me trust you with my decisions and future. Let me lean on you with all my heart instead of relying on my own imperfect understanding. Give me clear guidance in my life. I ask for your help to direct my path. Give me confidence that your direction is always the best way to go. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

God of love – I feel like I am lost but your word says that you will always guide me. You do not leave me wandering through life, but you are with me during every moment of every day. Help me to follow your ways when I feel weary and frustrated and help me to experience joy in life. May I be like the well-watered garden which thrives because the roots are firmly planted in your love.  Amen.

Creator God, you made me and you love me. My circumstances and experiences do not define me. Help me to understand that I am like a child and can trust you. Whatever I do today, your loving eye is on me, and you have promised to care for me. Help me to bring everything in my life before you. When I am uncertain, help me look to you. Guide me and teach me in the way that I should go and the paths that I should take.  

Amen.

Healing Prayer

 “Father, my heart is heavy. The pain of loss, rejection, and disappointment feels unbearable. But Your Word in Psalm 147:3 says that You heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. Today, I surrender my brokenness to You, trusting that You will bring healing to my soul.”