Here’s a thoughtful prayer of intercession from Lois Siemens.
Prayer of Intercession
Time of silence
O Lord our God, as we sit in quietness our thoughts are far from quiet.
We are wrestling with doubts and fears,
We are looking for answers,
We are hoping against hope
We are seeking strength
We are hungry.
For warm sunshine
For healed bodies
For rest from tears.
Your word says the hungry will be filled.
And we ask today for you to fill us.
Fill us with the breath of life,
Fill us with thankful hearts
Fill us with calmness, courage and most of all, with the knowledge of your presence.
(prayers for individuals)
There are others we know and love who are ill
and we ask O God that you would surround them
with your strong healing presence.
Grant wisdom to those who need answers to difficult questions.
Grant hope to those who despair
and friendship to those who feel lonely.
Most of all O Lord God, may we know your love,
your great love with you have for each one.
You know the hairs on our head, you count each beat of our heart.
You knit us together when we were being formed,
you know our getting up and our lying down.
You are familiar with all our ways.
There is no place we can hide from you.
You were there at our beginning
and you will be with us through to the end.
May we not lose sight of your constant care.
We look to you O God to be present in our communities and in our world.
Continue to show us how we at (name of local congregation)
can be part of your work in the world.
Teach us how we can grow into faith,
and become more and more like Jesus.
We also ask O Lord that you would bless the work of our hands.
Bless all that we offer today –
not only what we give of our money,
but the offerings of our time and our talents.
And now we gather all our prayers together,
the spoken and the unspoken
and pray the prayer that you taught us…our Father…
— excerpted from a longer prayer by Lois Siemens, and posted on the website of the Superb Mennonite Church. http://www.superbmennonite.org/
