"O Father, Who Turns Our Darkness into the Brilliance of Day" - 12 March 2023

 

Our Father, who turns our darkness into the brilliance of day, and gives us garments of joy in place of the apparel of sorrow; we find ourselves in times of worry and deep concern for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, our nation and our world. In times of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness; and in the day of trouble suffer not our trust in you to fail. We remember those who are grappling with specific hardships (…), may it please you to console and relieve them, according to their specific needs. Give them enduring patience under their sufferings and a happy conclusion to all their afflictions. 

With your watchful eye preserve those in our Military, especially (…), and encourage their families.

Look kindly on those we know who are thinking of marriage. Help them, in all of the excitement of romance to listen to wise counsel, to see clearly what it means to be married, and to learn how to sensibly and graciously work together as they go through the sometimes testy period of wedding preparations. Give health and resilience to those who are presently carrying child in their womb. We also pray for those making career decisions: please guide them to places and circumstances that will be best for them and their families, personally, professionally, but also with regard to piety.

Please safeguard our country and direct the hearts and minds of all our leaders in your ways of justice and truth for both the born and unborn.

We pray for this region that you would bestow on us the needful portions of rain so as to ease the pressure put on our water supply, and to nourish the earth.

Hear our concerns for the nations of this world, to include Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, and North and South Korea. Strengthen what is good, what is just and what is right, and cast out all that is murderous, evil and diabolical.

We plead for the salvation, transformation and rescue of those who have never believed in your Son and turned from their sins and for the restoration of those who have strayed away from you (…).

O Lord, we pray for your Church in all places, for this congregation, First Christian, Hillcrest, Memorial, and Midwest Blvd Christian Church. Strengthen our loyalty to you and build up our work done in the name of Christ. 

Finally, we pray that by your mercies you would turn the hearts of our enemies, persecutors and slanderers. May we not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. All we ask in union with Jesus Christ your Son, and our Lord and Savior. And now we pray as Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven…

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