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World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 1 November 2018

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-2 

And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:9

 

Dear God our Creator and Redeemer,

Help us to live in awe in this world, this day and in this moment.  Help us to understand with new eyes how you spoke the world into being and as it unfolds, even now, in this season, as wind and water move over earth.  Help us to hold sacred the lands.  Are we stewards or despoilers? Help us to understand how you restore and renew the world. Help us to see your grace at work.  We read of TheKofan people of Sinangoe in the Amazonwhoprotecting more than 79,000 acres of primary rainforest in their ancestral homeland in Ecuador. Theyhave won a landmark legal battle to defend one of its’ largest and most important rivers from mining claims.

And when will peace come like fresh water flowing through the many rivers of Ethiopia where 1.4 million of its 100 million people are displaced?  Help us to hear Ambassador Shalework Zewde’s words, “When there is no peace in country, mothers will be frustrated. Therefore, we need to work on peace for the sake of our mothers.”  Help us to see your grace at work as the two Houses elected their first female head of state.  Sustain this ancient land, stop the bloodshed and renew its peoples.

Be with the people and lawmakers of Sri Lanka, Germany and Brazil as leadership is changing and uncertainty grows.

And when will peace like the rains that come to Gaza in winter bring reconciliation and an end to the bloodshed and deprivation for the near 2 million Palestinians?  We mourn for the 210 killed and more than 18,000 wounded in the past 6 months during the weekly Friday protests along the Israeli border.  We pray for the brokering by Egypt for peace as refugees live with undrinkable tap water and only a few hours of electricity a day.  Only your mercy can cause these and other injustices to fall away.  In these days and weeks to come may your truth be known and received.

We watch and pray as the United States government has been ordered by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands to halt sanctions that it had placed on the exporting to Iran of medicine and medical devices such as incubators, food and agricultural commodities such as wheat and spare parts and equipment necessary to ensure the safety of civil aviation.  Open our eyes and hearts.  Help us to bend and bow to your commandment: to love you and to love one another.

Awaken us from the suffering and deep misery, the horrible loss of opioid addiction and death so prominent in both the United States and Canada. We pray that the US legislation signed into law this week known as the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act will indeed work swiftly, prioritizing children, adolescents, and families as this public health crisis continues to unfold.  We call on the Holy Spirit to guide our discerning as neighborhoods, towns, schools and workplaces find new resources to turn around this epidemic. We lift the tens of thousands who have experienced loss of loved ones.  Lord have mercy.

Shed your mercy on the grieving families and their community in Louisville, Kentucky, United States as an attempted break-in at a church and murder of two people raises the alarm of violence so often fueled by hate. Forgive us for our sins Lord.

We weep, we grieve, we shake our heads and we come together once again. The world watches as a young man’s ashes are laid to rest twenty years after a hate crime ended his life.  Again we despair, we groan and grieve as eleven worshipers at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA are murdered and six are injured. Guide us in these dark days where fear and hatred seem so common.  Will this violence end? Help us to continue our resolve for peace making amid such hate and deadly force.  In this time of mourning may we comfort each other as you have comforted us.  In the days to follow may we commit to the words of Micah, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Help us to take those steps no matter how hard it seems and how impossible the way.

And as this day becomes night let us remember your tender power amidst all the little things:  the birds in migration, the little ones yet to be reunited with their families, the least of these, the forgotten, the unnamed, the isolated and imprisoned, those on the road and in hiding, the many suffering – we pray for these and call to You.  Hear our prayers.

Amen.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thurs., April 26, 2018

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” ~ 1 John 4:7

“Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” ~ 1 John 4:20-21

Beloved One, it is all about love. You are Love beyond our understanding, beyond limit, merciful and creating. Truly all things come from You. You give us life and all that we have and set us free to use our will, given by you, to choose whether to grow towards You in learning the depths and challenges, joys and sorrows of loving.  Alternatively the choice is ours to assume Your position of God and make all decisions without love based on self-interest and power. Our ego reigns supreme and brokenness ensues.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

You call us to love as shown in Jesus the Christ by his life and being the Word from before Creation. Yet we so often choose which parts to hear or interpret according to our mind rather than that revealed by Your Holy Spirit.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

Boundaries. Borders. Invisible lines separating people, communities, nations. ‘We’ are this. ‘They’ are that. Perspectives defined by sound bites, propaganda, fear. False news, formerly known as ‘lies,’ destroys trust. And sometimes, when we are afraid, we may puff up our image of who ‘we’ are, and develop a deflated image of who ‘they’ are.

We can insert names, people and situations across the world only too easily in the silence….

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

Help us instead, dear God, to see the world as You ARE CREATING it:
beautiful lands inhabited by brothers and sisters who are different, who are practicing caring for each other, each one filled with potential.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. ~ 1 John 4:18a

Lord teach us to love as You love us.

Help us to see across the divisions that we impose, to resist the urge to create ‘comfortable’ distances that make it easy to label the ‘other’ as strange. Help us to think outside our usual way of doing things or having a ‘default’ reaction or action. Help us to find new ways, which may well turn out to be better than what is our ‘accepted practice’.

  • We give thanks for the courageous and restrained example of the Canadian policeman who peacefully detained the Toronto car mass murderer.
  • We give thanks for the Hindu priest in Hyderabad, India, who made headlines for carrying a Dalit (formerly known as untouchable) man on his shoulders into the temple’s inner sanctum, to show people that everyone is equal in the eyes of God.
  • We give thanks for the thousands in Germany – including people from the far right to the far left as well as the Turkish communities – who rallied in support of the Jewish community after an anti-Semitic attack earlier in the week.
  • We give thanks for the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice that opened this week in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., commemorating the black victims of the more than 4,000 “racial terror” lynchings in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950, bringing this horrendous and rarely acknowledged legacy into public view and opening the way for conversation and reconciliation.

We remember all who grieve and mourn and fear at this time.

Lead us by the light of Your wisdom.

Lord God, we know that in the death and resurrection of Jesus all forces of outer darkness intent on our destruction have been defeated. We lift up those forces still so prevalent in this world to Your care and Healing, that they may be converted in the Light of Your merciful love, transformed and work for the Healing of all Creation.

May we know You in all our ways and trust Your promise to show us how to live and love for Your Name’s sake. We ask these prayers in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This week’s prayers are adapted from one written by Ann Gerondelis, an author, architect and educator from Atlanta, Georgia, that is published in her book “Open Our Eyes : Daily prayers for Advent”, Wild Goose Publications 2016.

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A Note to our Readers:  World In Prayer is looking for a few new volunteers to take turns writing and posting the weekly prayers. Interested? Drop us a note at worldinprayer@aol.com.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 19th April 2018

We call ourselves to remember, dear God, that you are one. We call you to hear our prayer as we struggle for focus. Our world, your world, changes so drastically. We pray for the immediate survivors of the deaths of the famous, like Barbara Bush in the United States and Winnie Mandela in the Republic of South Africa, and of the humble. We pray that we may take from our sharing of all these lives, at whatever distance, things that in surprising ways, can be made to work together for good. We pray that we grow in depth and concentration in our love for you, for we know we are all part of the working together.

We pray for a centering vision for our leaders and for ourselves. As the world works toward a first face-to-face meeting between the heads of North Korea and of the United States, we pray for the wisdom of the negotiators. We pray for abundance of life for all Koreans, North, South and in diaspora.

We pray that diplomatic relations between the United States, United Kingdom, France and Russia persevere in negotiations towards a peaceful solution to any interference in the Syrian civil war so that the innocent civilians of this war-torn country suffer no more.

We pray for a corrective vision for histories, our own history as well as the history of others. We see anti-Semitism rising in Germany, Hungary and elsewhere. We see the presence of alternative views legislatively outlawed in Poland and ridiculed in the United States. We pray that outrageous claims may be replaced by a still more outrageous calm, in our hearts, in our minds, in our speech and in our communities.

We pray for an inclusive view of ourselves and others. Even baboons have worked collaboratively to escape a biomedical research facility with a record of fines and violations in the United States. We pray for refugees and for those who receive refugees. We pray for ourselves, that we may entertain angels unaware.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, April 12, 2018

[Jesus] stood among them and said to them, ‘Shalom be with you.’ ~ Luke 24:36

God of creation and creativity, you’ve given us the gift of language and communication so that we might speak of and learn about you, however feeble our understanding might be. We often take the gift of words for granted, forgetting the deep richness of meaning in the words you speak to us. Remind us especially today and always of the meaning of Jesus’ words to his disciples and to us: “Shalom be with you.”

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to peace for all people. Bring calm and reason to world leaders who threaten one another economically, politically, and militarily, especially in Russia, China, and the United States of America. Send people of good faith and compassion to negotiate healing and peace in places of long-lasting and complicated conflict like Syria, Palestine, Myanmar, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and so many other countries around the world where your children continue to suffer.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to justice for all people. Send your shalom to all governments leaders who are committed to improving lives and working for the prosperity of all. Make us aware of the fragility of our human hearts, so that we can guard against further instances of corruption like those currently playing out in South Africa and Brazil, where key government leaders have been charged or convicted. Remind us of our own role in creating communities of equality, where all people can live in safety and wholeness.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to health for all people. Bring healing to all who suffer illness in mind, body, and spirit. We pray especially for those who have been abused like Yoshitane Yamasaki, a man in Japan who was kept in a cage by his father for 20 years, and childless women in Guinea, where a scammer sold harmful herbs that made the women’s stomachs swell and told them that they had become pregnant. We pray also for the grieving families of the children who died in a bus crash in Himachal Pradesh, India.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to wholeness for all people. Embolden us to fight for change as we remember the empty and broken feelings of those who have lost loved ones to violence: the families of students killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, USA; the families of those killed and injured in Muenster, Germany, when a van drove into a crowd; and the families of those who mourn the senseless deaths of people they love due to gun violence, terrorism, and hate.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to safety for all people. Fill us with compassion for people who live in danger every day in Douma, Syria, where gas attacks threaten lives, and in Offa, Nigeria, where violent robberies have become routine.

Remind us that the shalom of God means a commitment to your future kingdom in all its fullness. Give us the boldness to pray as you taught us, “Thy kingdom come,” and then to act on that prayer, working for peace where there is war, justice where there is need, health where there is illness, wholeness where there is loss, and safety where there is fear and danger. Fill us with your shalom, so that we can carry your message of hope, love, and joy to the ends of the earth.

Amen.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018

Holy One,

We keep scrolling through the news, forever flicking from catastrophe to exhilaration to trauma, over and over and over again. Make us stop. Force us to take a break. Teach us how to breathe. Show us how to behold–rather than barrel through–your world.

We pray that we might take a break and breathe and behold the world, as you do.

May we breathe and behold those who are preparing for the Winter Olympics. We pray for the safety and well-being of these awe-inspiring athletes.

May we breathe and behold those who are preparing for elections and the transition of power in Venezuela, Germany, and South Africa. We pray for citizen voices to be heard, debate to remain non-violent, and appropriate authority respected.

May we breathe and behold those in need of drinkable water, whether they live in Cape Town, South Africa or Flint, Michigan, USA. We pray for provisions to keep your children satiated in the present and regulations to keep your children safe in the future. And we pray that we might never, ever, ever, ever, take for granted the gift of water and other resources from your Creation.

May we breathe and behold those who remain in battle zones and under siege in Syria. Even when the words seem to dry with despair on our lips, we still lift to you our prayers of grief, anger, fear, frustration, and deep lament for Syrian citizens and refugees. Hold these, your children. Breathe your Spirit into them. Remind them at that they are not alone, no matter how long the conflict drags on.

May we breathe and behold those who work to lift up the last, the lost, and the least here in our United States. As our media and legislators fixate on the wealthiest, most glamorous among us, we pray for the conviction to look for you in the face of the stranger, immigrant, prisoner, impoverished, abandoned, and weak.

We pray for the hearts and minds and strength to breathe and behold you in the world around us. We pray that we might learn to love you not just in word but in action, here and now and always.

In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer- December 14, 2017

Holy One,
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” (John 1)

“My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” (Luke 1)

We know this to be true: You speak to us and our spirits vibrate with your call. You breathe upon our lives and we breathe in your peace. You sing and our feet pick up the tune. You turn the world upside down, and our hearts are lifted high. Your light pierces the dark, your justice overturns the powerful, your grace shatters the illusion of our own grandeur; in so many moments, surprising and unexpected, we have witnessed the way you transform the world.
And yet, still we struggle when we turn to pray for the world. We struggle to remember these moments of your glory. We struggle to trust in your work. We struggle to magnify your peace and justice, your mercy and righteousness. When the world wants to drown us with despair, we struggle to let our hearts blaze with hope and joy.
We need your Word. We need your Word as proclaimed by John the Baptist in his fiery speeches about your Light. We need your Word in Mary as she sings forth the prophetically profound Magnificat. We need these words and your Word to realign our priorities, to refocus our gaze, to redirect us towards the dance of your Spirit in the world around us.
As we turn to pray for the world, we know we see with Your eyes. We need to look with Your eyes at the Democratic Republic of Congo to see the nearly half a million children who face starvation. We need to look with Your eyes at the entrenched Israeli/Palestinean conflict to see the civilians injured in recent weeks by mobs and rockets in the occupied Palestinian territories. We need to look with Your eyes at our current political partisan divides to see the hundreds of men and women who have had the courage to claim their experience of sexual assault in the United States and beyond. We need to look with Your eyes at Zimbabwe and Kenya, to witness the citizens involved in the tenuous transition of political power. We need to look with Your eyes at the refugees who remain in limbo in Greece, Syria, Turkey, Germany, Myanmar, Jordan, Israel, and the countries of Central America.
We need to look with Your eyes and hold these prayers in our hearts, because we believe that you are God with Us, Emmanuel, and all of those lifted up in prayer are your beloved children.
In you, we live and move and have our being. In you, we pray our prayers for the world. In you, we remember who and whose we are.
Thanks be to you, the Word Made Flesh.
Amen.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News in Prayer Thursday, November 23, 2017

     “…for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to
drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me
clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” ~ Matthew 25:42-43

 

God of the poor and hungry, God of the lonely and homeless, God of the imprisoned and victims of injustice, at this time of giving thanks we turn to you with heads bowed in both shame and awareness of the ways in which we fall short of your call to love. As we look, often with tear-filled eyes, around this world of your creation, we grieve for the governmental instability which threatens peace and security in so many places: Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Germany, Syria. Breathe your wisdom into the leaders of the nations and breathe your peace into the countless peoples who live in fear.

          God of grace and glory, hear our prayer.

God of the downtrodden and forgotten, God of the insecure and uncertain, God of the refugee and the immigrant, even as we sit at our tables of abundance within our safe and warm and secure homes, turn our minds and hearts to those who live in fear and uncertainty each day: the Rohingya of Myanmar; the Haitians in the United States who face deportation in 18 months; the nearly 700,000 illegal immigrant children allowed to remain in the US under the Obama Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program whose future has yet to be decided. We remember too the refugees throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australasia and elsewhere fleeing violence and war yet struggling to find a safe haven. Breathe your strength into all for whom tomorrow’s path is unclear and shine the light of your inclusive love into every darkened corner.

God of grace and glory, hear our prayer.

God of the fear-filled and angry, God of the rich and the poor, God of the sick and the abused, even as people in the US attempt to celebrate their holiday of Thanksgiving, our gaze is clouded by the miasma of scandalous sexual behavior of well-known men which daily fills the news in the United States, India, both North and South Korea, the UK, Europe and too many countries to list. Fear and concern soar due to the far-reaching potential effects of the proposed US tax bill upon those already stretched to the breaking point financially.  This too is echoed in other countries where those with limited means or lack of job opportunities are being squeezed, taxed and marginalised at the expense of so many large multinational corporations.   Darkness and despair threatens with the seeming never endless cycle of countless mass shootings in the United States, terrorist attacks reported and unreported across the globe including in Nigeria.  Breathe your empowerment on women everywhere as they attempt to be all you have created them to be and fill those in positions of power with an awareness of how to exercise that power with responsibility, respect, and justice.

God of grace and glory, hear our prayer.

God of hope and wonder, God of joy and sorrow, God of earth and sky and sea, as we seek for the “Good News”, open our eyes to see and rejoice in the work of US Vietnam veteran, Michael Reagan, who has made it his life’s work to create portraits of fallen soldiers as gifts for their families; for the Giant Panda sanctuaries which have been established in the Sichuan Province, China, for the protection of these beautiful beings; for the meeting between the US Rev. William Barber of “Repairing the Breach” and Pope Francis, two men of deep faith, on Thanksgiving Day at the Vatican, Italy. Breathe love for your creation and all of its creatures into all of us and into those who make decisions which have far-reaching effects.

God of grace and glory, hear our prayer.

God of many names and many faces, God who looks like me and like you, God whose voice and presence fills this world, help us to see you in every person we meet, and to recognize that each place we stand, each encounter we have, is Holy Ground…today and every day. Amen

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, December 1, 2016

O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

Psalm 63:1-4, NRSV

In this season of Advent, we wait with expectation for the arrival of our Lord, lifting up our hands in search of relief for our parched lives that only God can give.

We thirst for you, O Lord.

Creation thirsts for you as our environment is threatened by natural disasters and human negligence.  From Australia we hear news that this year has brought more damage to the Great Barrier Reef than any previous year on record.  In Costa Rica, Tropical Storm Otto has caused the deaths of at least 12 people and has left millions of dollars in damage in its wake.  Massive landslides have followed unusually heavy rains in Liguria, Italy, destroying homes and towns throughout the region.  Bring hope and healing to our world, we pray.

We thirst for you, O Lord.

Our relationships thirst for you as fear and mistrust grow among different religious, cultural, and ethnic groups around the world.  This week a mosque in California, US, received threatening hate mail; a car bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia, killed or injured at least 27 people; and 11 people were injured on the Ohio State University campus in Ohio, US, by an attacker who used his car and a knife to inflict pain and terror.  Bring hope and healing to our common humanity, we pray.

We thirst for you, O Lord.

Our bodies thirst for you as disease and injury claim our energy, our hope, and our lives.  In Melbourne, Australia, dozens of people have been affected by “thunderstorm asthma,” a rare phenomenon caused by strong storms blowing high concentrations of pollen into the air.  New outbreaks of a deadly strain of bird flu have been spreading in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands.  A train crash in the Semnan province of Iran resulted in the deaths of more than 35 people, and 76 passengers, including members of a Brazilian soccer club, died in a plane crash in Columbia.  Bring hope and healing to our fragile lives, we pray.

We thirst for you, O Lord.

Our communities thirst for you as financial and political uncertainties grow.  Concerns about the stability of currency in India and Zimbabwe have increased anxiety at local, national, and international levels.  Political unrest and division continue in the US as a new government administration organizes and prepares to take power.  Contentious political elections in France and Austria lend feelings of doubt and insecurity in those countries and abroad.  Bring hope and healing to our nations, we pray.

We thirst for you, O Lord.

Our spirits thirst for you as our inhumanity towards others is exposed.  Claims of torture in Turkish prisons have come to light after the failure of a recent coup.  Scandals among leaders in South Korea, Uganda, and Afghanistan breed distrust and damage the bonds of humanity that we share.  Thousands of Syrian civilians fleeing Assad’s army now have nowhere to seek medical treatment now that the last hospital in eastern Aleppo has been destroyed.  Bring hope and healing to our human brokenness, we pray.

We thirst for you, O Lord.

God of glory and love, power and compassion, our souls thirst for you as we struggle to find hope in the dry and weary land of this world.  Have mercy on us as we cry out to you.  Stretch out your arms to meet us as we seek you, and enfold us in your loving embrace.  Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and usher in that day when every voice will bless you and call on your name.

Amen.

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 28, 2016

‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy’.  ~ Ezekiel 16:49

You, creator God, are merciful and just; loving all that you created and seeing that your works are good.   You draw all creation to you with cords of love but you bind us loosely, your love is such that we are free to return your love or break away.

Forgive us that we require people to be so poor they and their children work in sweatshop conditions producing cheap clothing which we in our poverty think is fine to wear once or twice then throw away.  As controversial amendments are made to India’s child labor bill, forgive us our arrogant poverty of mind.

Forgive us that we require people do the things we turn our noses up, the work in fields and farms, the “dirty” industries which we in our poverty think is fine for others of different culture or society but not for the likes of us.  With only one international chain of coffee shops exploring the need for recyclable coffee cups, forgive us our overfed poverty of body.

Forgive us that we require people to be just like us, excluding anyone we denote as different, which we in our poverty think is fine as we fail to recognise our own need of acceptance.  As 19 disabled people are killed in Japan for being different, forgive us our unconcerned poverty of spirit.

Generous and forgiving God, once more we know we are your forgiven, beloved children, make us so generous that all will come to know this.

In the violence of this week’s news we pray for those who are made to feel embarrassed and stupid because their use of a second, or third or fourth language is ridiculed rather than congratulated.  We pray for the refugees and people of the Isle of Bute, Scotland politicised by a journalist seeking a good story rather than truth.  

In the violence of this week’s news we pray for the people of the strong Christian communities in Bavaria, Germany  and Rouen, France, and for the people of Florida, USA as news of a night club shooting is overridden as “not terrorist related”.  We give thanks that instead of responding with anger, violence and hatred, as those totally deceived and misguided young people committed to violence want and thereby used to “justify” further acts of terror, so many are responding with public prayer, unity and reconciliation across all groups whether of faith, race and culture.  United they condemn the violence but choose to show love and compassion to those so deeply affected.  

In the violence of this week’s news we pray for those caught up in the events of the natural world:

  • 10,000 Californian, USA homes evacuated in the path of wild fires after 5 years of drought;
  • for those struggling to survive the heat and dust ofa desert summer in the Syrian refugee camps;
  • for the people of South Sudan where poverty, lack of food and water combine to bring war again to the world’s youngest country;
  • and for the dozens killed in Nepal in flash floods even while so many there still live in tents a year after the massive earthquakes devastated so many communities. 

Generous and living God, teach us to be rich and generous towards you.  So in that way we may be similarly generous toward each other dividing what we have until all have enough but not too much which we cannot use. 

AMEN.

 

 

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, May 12, 2016

Loving God, we pray for your guidance, yea even for your insistence, that we learn from the distillation of meaningful description of the lives of those whose example we would follow.

When we feel weak, remind us we are no weaker than Moses who as an infant was condemned to death by Pharaoh with all the Hebrew boys but survived with the protective care of his nurses, his mother, his sister, even Pharaoh’s daughter. Teach us not to think we have an excuse just because we need the help of technicians and scientists and other believers to address grave problems as universal as those Moses attacked. The genocidal edict at his birth is mirrored in our own time by catastrophes of nature and governance. Nearly 385,000 people in Puntland and Somaliland face acute food insecurity. An estimated 1.3 million people are at risk of slipping into acute food insecurity if they do not receive assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Those who suffer as well as we who would offer assistance somehow need to remember the protection that every vulnerable child, every domestic animal, and every weakened human being needs.

When like Moses, the murderer on the run, we are tempted to bury ourselves in the day-to-day work of life, as he buried himself in the day-to-day work of herding sheep for his father-in-law, draw us to you even if we are in the midst of our chores. Moses was in the midst of searching for a missing sheep when he met you in the burning bush. Teach us how to attend to your greater purpose for our lives even as we try to satisfy the most ordinary demands. Inspire us to look beyond our revenge-driven pursuit of safety from terrorism to study ways to reclaim those who have flirted with that particular face the devil. Let us attend carefully to what Hayat Germany has learned and is teaching the world about de-radicalizing neo-Nazis and would-be jihadists who have repented of their ways. Help us to give up our own playground preference for getting even. Help us welcome our own prodigal sons and daughters back to their families, back to their lives.

When we are tempted to copy Moses in pleading our own lack of preparation for what you call us to do, remind us that you feel angry when we fail to see what resources we have or to use other resources that we can find. “Moses said, ‘O my Lord, please send someone else.’ Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, ‘What of your brother Aaron the Levite?'” We understand our inadequacies very well! We live with them every day. But just as the deaconesses of the 19th century churches in the United States found a way to bring their nickels to meeting after meeting until they were able to establish hospital after hospital, nursing school after nursing school, we can find a way to fund the work that must be done to keep babies alive, to provide relief after natural disasters, and to educate the children of the world to be prepared to do greater deeds than we have dreamed of.

In the spirit of the hymn, “Lord, speak to me that I may speak in loving echoes of your tone,” Moses returned to Egypt with all its dangers and directly addressed Pharaoh, “Let my people go.”

Take us. Use us. Compel us, however small we may be, to set our feet along whatever path you tell us to take, for the sake of your beloved world.

AMEN

Filed Under: Weekly Prayers

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Countries

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Gratitudes

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