Prayers for the United States

Prayers naming the United States have followed storms, tornadoes, wildfires and floods across many states, along with elections and political tension, gun violence, and questions of migration and race. Health, mental health and the well-being of ordinary households appear often, as do thanksgivings for its landscapes and wild places.

Come and See: A Prayer After Barcelona, Charlottesville’s Aftermath, and the Ischia Earthquake (August 24, 2017)

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from […]

So Much We Fail to Understand: Barcelona, Sierra Leone’s Mudslides, and Egypt’s Train Crash (August 17, 2017)

We lift this prayer, written from the ancestral home of the llini, Miami, Shawnee, Dakota Sioux, Chickasaw, Winnebago, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Huron-Wyandot, and Sac-Fox tribes with full respect for their creativity and courage. We lift this prayer that will be read within many other geographic and cultural contexts with full respect for the various ways you have inspired […]

Lead Us From Darkness to Light: A Prayer for Peace 72 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 10, 2017)

Dear God Today we pray for peace. We remember those who perished with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan 72 years ago this week. The monuments and memorials and parks in these cities and other cities and lands having suffered holocausts remind us that our prayers are mighty and necessary. Help us to […]

There Is a Balm in Gilead: Prayers for Those Jailed for Speaking Out, Firefighters, and Elephants (August 3, 2017)

The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. Psalm 145:14 There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. God of grace and glory, God who knows our hearts and minds, you can see, you […]

Fruit of the Spirit: Prayers for 20 Million Facing Hunger and for Those Who Help (July 20, 2017)

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” ~ Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) Heavenly Father, we come before you – worn, weary, and hungry for the fruit of the Holy Spirit to fill out hearts and […]

Not by Bread Alone: A Prayer for Liu Xiaobo, a Rescue in Florida, and a Trillion-Ton Iceberg (July 13, 2017)

Dear God of instruction, open our hearts to learn, learn as our forebears in faith learned. Looking back on their experiences in captivity and liberation, they heard, “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you […]

When the News Is Also Olds: Prayers for Johannesburg’s Fire, Mosul, and Charlie Gard (July 6, 2017)

Lord, time after time the news reflects what has happened; this week’s events reflecting what has already happened. So we pray for those for whom the news is also “olds” – for they remember the pain, the trauma, the fear, the deep changes in their lives. We pray for those caught in the fire in […]

Your Kingdom Come: Prayers After the Travel Ban, for Niger’s Abandoned Migrants and Gaza’s Newborns (June 29, 2017)

Your glorious cause, O God Engages our hearts May Jesus Christ be known Wherever we are We ask not for ourselves, but for Your renown The cross has saved us so we pray Your kingdom come. – Let Your Kingdom Come, by Bob Kauflin Holy and almighty God, in the face of suffering and trials, […]

Worth More Than Sparrows: Prayers for Portugal’s Wildfires, Storm Cindy, and Yemen’s Cholera (June 22, 2017)

Lord, I can see the cherries ripening on the tree outside. The raspberries redden almost quicker than I can pick, but there are those for whom there will be no harvest. As sparrows happily investigate the fruit, they remind me, everyone is of more value than sparrows. Deep down we really know this, however […]

The Harvest of Grace: Prayers After the Grenfell Tower Fire and Mogadishu Bombing (June 15, 2017)

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the overseer of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. —Matthew 9.37-38 Harvest by Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes Maybe the harvest is not bringing people to Christ but gathering the fruits of the Spirit God has sown in you for the sake of […]