Sunday Evening Pastoral Prayer - 6 October 2013

{I hope you find these useful for your own times of prayer. Again, feel free to use them in your Bible study, Church or personal times - Mike}
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Prayer Preparation: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”
Adoration and Intercession:O our God and Father, you are trustworthy and dependable. Our coming to you is our coming to our greatest good and unstoppable joy! Oh but how oft we have had our heads turned aside by what we thought was more attractive, only to find that in the end, those other pleasures and indulgences left us dry, desiccated and parched. And yet, coming to ourselves and confessing our folly, we find you having compassion on us, running to us and embracing us (Luke 15.11-24). O our God and Father, trustworthy and dependable, you are our greatest good and unstoppable joy!

We affirm that your eyes, O LORD, run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show yourself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to you (2 Chronicles 15.9). Therefore, Lord God, mighty to save, we cry out to you to rescue your people in Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Kenya, Nigeria, and wherever else their life is in peril. Rescue them from the teeth of the one who walks about like a roaring lion seeking to devour them. Rescue them from the tongues of those who bear false witness against them. Rescue them for your own name’s sake! O Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for the good estate of your Church world over {including Grace Covenant Church; Grace United Methodist Church; Grace Worship Center; Grafted Branch Church; Greater Christ Temple Church and Greater Cleaves Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church}; so guide and govern her by your Holy Spirit and holy Scriptures, that all of us who call ourselves Christians may walk in the way of the LORD, may walk in the way of righteousness and in the paths of justice (Proverbs 8.20); full of the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere (James 3.17). O Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray, Mighty God, for our world, and our own nation. For you see how evil, corruption, bigotry, brutality, rioting, bloodshed, criminal exploits, drug-running, bombings and human trafficking have broken out in so many places. O that justice would run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream (Amos 5.24). O that the peoples and their leaders would seek good, and not evil, and live; that the inhabitants and magistrates of all countries would hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; and that you, O LORD God of hosts, might be gracious to us (Amos 5.14-15). O Lord, hear our prayer.

We are grateful, Yahweh Rapha – the LORD our healer – for your hearing our prayers on behalf of those who have been sick and sore, bleak and blasted, healing and restoring them as you have. We continue to pray for your rich kindness to lift up the many others who are recovering from surgery, those who are trying to maintain their quality of life in spite of their MS, those who have heart troubles, those who find themselves weakened with age, … We pray that your hand would be with them to heal, strengthen, restore and comfort. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Finally, Father, we pray for this congregation: here may the faithful find strength, and the careless be awakened. Here may the doubting find assurance, and the anxious be relieved. Here may the tempted find help, and the sorrowful comfort. Here may the weary find rest, and the weak be renewed. Here may the elderly find consolation, and the young find direction. Here may the wayward find restoration, and the sinner find you. O Lord, hear our prayer.

All of these prayers we offer through Your Son, Jesus Christ, as we now sing:
Hear our prayer, O Lord;
Hear our prayer, O Lord.
Incline thine ear to us,
And grant us thy peace. Amen.
(Trinity Hymnal # 728)

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