Prayer for Others: God's Provision

Here’s a prayer of thanksgiving and intercession inspired by the ways in which God cared for the Israelites while in the wilderness.

Prayer for Others

God,

like the Israelites in the wilderness,

we too have known Your love,

and experienced Your care and provision.

You invite us to extend that love to the world around us—

to care for others as deeply as we care for ourselves.

And so we bring the needs of our world before You now.

In Your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for the many who do not have enough:

  enough food to eat, or shelter to keep warm;

  enough employment, or money to pay their bills;

  enough medicine or medical care.

Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

We also pray for those who have more than enough,

  but who still struggle to find meaning and purpose in life;

  who indulge in dangerous or self-serving activities

      to dull their pain or loneliness.

Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

God, Your grace reaches out to all of us.

You call us to live as citizens of heaven,

working together with one heart and mind.

Strengthen us to live in a manner worthy

of the Good News we have received,

offering our lives in service of Your kingdom,

where the last are first, and the first are last,

and there is grace enough for all.

Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, Amen.

~ Christine Longhurst, re:Worship

Prayers of the People: Proper 21 A

Here’s a possible prayer of intercession for Proper 21, Year A, based on the suggested scripture readings for that day: Exodus 17:1-7 (where God makes water flow from a rock in the wilderness); Matthew 21:23-32 (the parable of the two sons); and Philippians 2:1-13 (where Paul encourages believers to live with humility, imitating the example of Jesus Christ). Feel free to revise this prayer to suit your needs.

Prayer of Intercession

God,

You are a God of compassion and love.

Time after time we have experienced your care and provision.

Time after time You’ve answered our prayers and met our needs—

often in ways we could never have dreamed possible.

We praise You for Your faithful love toward us.

Because we have known Your love,

we come to You with confidence,

offering our prayers for the world that You love.

We see so much pain and suffering;

so much anger and frustration and despair.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the needs around us.

But we continue to bring our prayers to You in faith,

because we know that nothing is impossible for You.

You are the God who rained down bread from heaven,

and made water flow from a rock in the desert;

the God who resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead,

and who brings new life and hope to all who believe.

For You, all things are possible.

Hear our prayers.

We pray for those suffering the effects of recent  natural disasters....
(insert petitions here)

Because nothing is impossible for You, O God,
hear our prayer, and in Your love, answer.

We pray for the regions of our world caught up in violence and threats of violence:

(insert petitions here)

Because nothing is impossible for You, O God,

hear our prayer, and in Your love, answer.

We pray for those who live with serious illness,

   those with chronic pain,

   those without access to proper medical care,

   those for whom treatment is no longer an option.

Because nothing is impossible for You, O God,

hear our prayer, and in Your love, answer.

Merciful God,

You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to show us a different way to live—

the way of deep humility and obedience.

You’ve called us to love one another,

and to work together with one heart and mind,

balancing our needs with the needs of those around us.

Give us courage to follow faithfully, and with integrity—

with actions that bear witness to the words we speak,

and worship that overflows into our daily tasks and relationships—

so that our lives will bring glory and honour to You,

our Redeemer and Lord. Amen.

~ Christine Longhurst, re:Worship

Prayer: Splitting Rocks in the Wilderness (Ps. 78)

Here’s a prayer of praise and commitment inspired by Psalm 78:15, “He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas.” It was written by Rev. Erin Counihan, and posted on RevGalBlogPals.

Prayer

(inspired by Psalm 78: 15)

You split rocks open in the wilderness.
You called water to pour forth from the fissures.
To quench your people’s thirst.
To calm your people’s complaints.
To teach us how to trust.

You.
You split rocks open in the wilderness.

You split rocks open in my heart.
You called living water from there, too.
To change your people’s path.
To fuel your people’s journeys.
To teach me how to believe.

You.

You are splitting rocks open in our communities.
You are calling forth the rush of our voices.
To flush out your people’s complacency.
To bubble up your people’s creativity.
To teach us how to act out in faith. (Again)

You.

You are splitting and pouring and helping and churning,
You are rumbling and turning and raining and charging,
and we are trying to follow along.
Not understanding.
Not knowing.
And, yes, complaining.

And You.
You don’t give up.
So, go ahead.
We’re here.
Listening.
Learning.
Breaking.
Trying.
For You.

~ written by Rev. Erin Counihan, pastor at Oak Hill Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in St. Louis, MO. She blogs at http://www.somewhatreverend.wordpress.com. This prayer was posted on RevGalBlogPals. https://revgalblogpals.org/

Opening Prayer: Living Water

Here’s an opening prayer, inspired by the suggested RCL scripture readings for the third Sunday in Lent, Year A. It was written by Rev. Karla and posted on RevGalBlogPals (see link below).

Opening Prayer

(inspired by Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, John 4:5-42)

Holy Watering One,

Fount of Every Blessing,

We come to you this morning,

Opening our parched places to receive

the springs of living water

You offer to us.

Most of the time,

most of us don’t even know we are thirsty.

We don’t know the deep dehydration

that scours our bones and parches our hearts.

Sometimes, when our thirst pangs emerge,

We draw from the enticing wells

of the world’s offering of power and profit,

which leave us even more empty.

Still us, God,

so we might listen to You speaking to us,

knowing us, seeing us, loving us.

Fill us with your Living Water

that will transform our spirits and souls

into springs that burst forth

with life and love

for your people, for ourselves, and for our world.

~ written by Rev. Karla and posted on RevGalBlogPals. https://revgalblogpals.org/2017/03/18/sunday-prayer-213/

Prayer: Facing the desert places

Here’s a prayer from Rev Karla.  It was inspired by Psalm 25:4-5, and posted on the RevGalBlogPals website.

Prayer

(inspired by Psalm 25: 4-5)

Make us to know your ways, O Lord; teach us your paths.

Lead us  in your truth, and teach us,

for you are the God of our salvation; for you we wait all day long.

We will wait for you, O God.

Your Spirit compels us

to go into the wilderness, 

and we ask for the courage to examine

the desert places in our hearts,

and to be be willing to 

face the adversaries in our lives—

that which lures us away

from being who you have created us to be. 

We pray for the courage to face our wild beasts and fears.

Relieve the troubles of our hearts,

and the devastation of our distress.

Turn your love towards us

that we may we know your grace in our loneliness and afflictions.

We pray this prayer,

knowing that you watch over us, and deliver us.

We wait for you, O God. 

In the name of our brother Jesus we pray,

Amen.

~ excerpted from a longer prayer by Rev Karla.  Posted on RevGalBlogPals. http://revgalblogpals.org/category/revgalblogpals/

Litany: Philippians 2: 6-11

Here’s a litany on the Hymn to Christ in Philippians 2. It was posted on the Life in Liturgy website.

A Litany on “The Mind of Christ”

Let us remember Jesus: 

Who, though he was rich,

for our sakes became poor and dwelt among us;

Who was content to be the child of a poor family;

Who lived the common life,

earning his living with his own hands

and declining no humble tasks;

Whom the common people heard gladly,

for he understood their ways.

Let us remember Jesus: 

Who was mighty in deed, healing the sick and afflicted,

using for others the powers he would not invoke for himself;

Who was master and Lord to his disciples,

yet was among them as their Companion

and as one who served.

Let us remember Jesus: 

Who loved people, yet retired from them to pray,

rose a great while before day,

watched through the night,

stayed in the wilderness,

went up into a mountain,

sought out a garden;

Who prayed for his tempted disciple,  

and for the forgiveness of all who rejected him,

and for the perfecting of those who received him;

Who observed good customs,

but defied conventions that did not serve the purposes of God.  

Who hated sin because he knew the cost of pride and selfishness,

of cruelty and impurity—the cost to humanity and to God.

May this mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus.

Let us remember Jesus: 

Who, when he was reviled, did not retaliate,

and when he suffered did not threaten;

who emptied himself and carried obedience to the point of death,

even death on the cross.

May this mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus.

Let us pray for Christ to dwell within our hearts.

O Christ, our only Savior,

so come to dwell in us

that we may go forth with the light of your hope in our eyes,

and with your faith and love in our hearts.  Amen. 

~ adapted from an unknown author by the editor of Life in Liturgy, from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). https://lifeinliturgy.wordpress.com/

Prayer Reflection: Exodus 17: 1-7

Here’s a reflection based on Exodus 17:1-7 (where God provides water from a rock in the wilderness). It was written by Roddy Hamilton.

Prayer Reflection

(inspired by Exodus 17:1-7)

In such a place I could only long for the future
for wilderness was all there was
an ordinariness that ate my soul
and spoke only dry, thirsty words to me
that even as I tried to hold them back
deliberately broke through
to open dreams of still waters
and feasts of plenty
of cups running over
and a tables set with banquets

For in my everyday-ness
I find I live a wilderness life
more than a kingdom life
I live not looking for water in the desert
nor with expectation that it is willing to flow
if only I ask for it

I walk through my days
expecting nothing more
than today’s happening
repeated tomorrow
not daring to hold out for
nor expecting
the rocks to break open
and for water to gush
or for flowers to bloom
in the desert places
or a word to crack apart
the everydayness and reveal a new story
or bread to fall open
and reveal the feast of the kingdom
in every crumb

Give my soul the longing, Lord
that I might expect
in all the everydayness
the light of justice will break through
and the word of promise will be heard
and the act of kindness will be recognized
and then celebrated
as a gift from you
that changes that wilderness moment
into a kingdom event
like water flowing in the desert
that will feed my hungry soul
with promise and delight
where the ordinary wilderness
becomes the birthing place
of your promises
yet to be.

~ written by Roddy Hamilton, and posted on the New Kilpatrick Parish Church website. https://www.nkchurch.org.uk/original-liturgy  

Call to Worship: Psalm 25

Here’s a call to worship based on Psalm 25.  It comes from Amy Loving’s The Worship Closet.

Call to Worship

(based on Psalm 25)

We lift up our souls to you, Holy God.

We trust the Lord with our past, present, and future.

Teach us, Lord, that we may know your ways.

Guide our every move, Holy One,

that we may walk in your paths of love and mercy.

Let us worship the One who leads us in what is right.

Together, let us worship God!

 ~ written by Amy Loving, and posted on The Worship Closet: The Place for Creative Worship Ideas. http://worshipcloset.com/baptism-of-the-lord-sunday-year-b-words-for-worship/

Call to Worship: We Come to Hear the Stories

Here’s a call to worship from Joanna Harader’s Spacious Faith blog (see below for link).

Call to Worship

We come to hear the stories
of other people
in another world
long ago.

We come to hear the stories
that are also about us
today
in this place.

God, give us ears to listen.
eyes to see,
hearts to accept.

~ posted by Joanna Harader on Spacious Faith. http://spaciousfaith.com/

Scripture Collage: The Lordship of Christ

Here’s a three-voice reading on the Lordship of Christ I put together for a service a few weeks ago.  It draws from the following scripture texts:  1 Corinthians 1:2-3, Colossians 1:15-17, 19-20; Philippians 2:6-11; 1 Corinthians 8:5-7; Romans 10:9-10; Matthew 7:21; Ephesians 4:1; Romans 14:7-9; 1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 Thessalonians 5:22-24.

The Lordship of Christ

1:         To the church of God,

            to all those whom Christ Jesus has made holy,

            who are called to be God’s men and women,

            to all true believers in Jesus Christ—their Lord and our Lord—

            grace and peace to you

            from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!

2:         Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

            He existed before anything was created

            and is supreme over all creation,

            for through him God created everything in heaven and on earth.

3:         He existed before anything else,

            and he holds all creation together.

1:         God in all his fullness

            was pleased to live in Christ,

            and through him, God reconciled everything to himself,

            making peace…by means of his blood on the cross.

3:         Though he was God,

            he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

            Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;

            he took the humble position of a slave

            and was born as a human being.

2:         When he appeared in human form,

            he humbled himself in obedience to God

            and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

1:         Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

            and gave him the name above all other names,

            that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

            in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

            and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

            to the glory of God the Father.

2:         We know that there is only one God, the Father,

            who created everything,

            and we live for him.

3:         And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ,

            through whom God made everything

            and through whom we have been given life.

1:         This is the message we preach:

            If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

            and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,

            you will be saved.

3:         For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God,

2:         and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

1:         Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’

            will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

            Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.

2:         I beg you,

            lead a life worthy of your calling,

            for you have been called by God.

3:         We don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves.

            If we live, it is to honor the Lord.

            And if we die, it is to honor the Lord.

1:         So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

            Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—

            to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.

2:         So, brothers and sisters,

            be strong and immovable.

            Stand firm.

3:         Always work enthusiastically for the Lord,

            for you know that nothing you do for him is ever lost or wasted.

1:         May the God of peace make you holy in every way;

3:         may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless

            until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2:         He who calls you is utterly faithful,

1:         and he will finish what he has set out to do.