Here’s a prayer of intercession for the Advent
season. It was written by Rev. Dr. Derek Browning.
Prayer
of Intercession
for
Advent
Eternal God, Sustainer and enlivener,
In Your hands You hold the gifts of hope and love, plenty
and peace.
We bless You for Your infinite generosity and
unhesitant mercy.
Father,
Knowing that we come to You as supplicants who can
demand nothing,
yet still we are confident through faith
to lay before You the needs that press upon our
lives.
For ourselves,
the hopes and hurts, the brightness and gloom
that populate our waking and our sleeping hours.
Help us to separate our needs from our wants,
that we may discern where priorities in our ordered
lives should lie.
In a world where consumption rules
and many have become accustomed to plenty,
remind us of the privileges we take for granted,
and the bounty we believe is our right, and not Your
gift.
Lord,
we pray for common-sense, and the touch of faithful
humility
that marked the life of Your Son, our Saviour.
that we may determine to live lives of kindliness
and grace.
God of faithfulness and truth,
we pray for the world around us,
for peoples whose names we do not know
yet whose hurts fill the news,
and whose afflictions touch us not nearly long
enough.
We can change a channel, or turn a page,
but they endure the long days and months
of famine and thirst,
of war and feud,
of corruption and despair.
Solutions may not be easy for all the ills of this
world,
but in each hurting place send Your Spirit,
that those who do have the power to effect the
changes
needed for justice, peace and honour
may use their power for wellbeing of all.
In this season of Advent, where many watch and wait,
be with those who at this time
wait by a hospital bedside,
watch anxiously for results in exams and tests
wait for news of an interview,
watch of a loved one to return.
May all who wait with anxiety continue in hope,
and all who watch with fearfulness continue with a
steady heart.
We pray for the Church,
the family of hopeful people,
persistent in faithfulness and graciousness,
marked by a willingness to work in kindness
and not count the hours or the cost.
As the world darkens and the days grow short,
may our light, Christ’s light in us,
shine with a steady flame,
bringing light, bringing healing, and bringing hope.
And all for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
~ written by the Rev. Dr. Derek Browning, and posted
on the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website. http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/17825/1_December_2013_Advent_1.pdf
