Prayers: March 21, 2010

Dear God, we thank you and praise you for your glorious creation, the many gifts you give to us each day as individuals and as members of your church.  You are a loving God, an awesome God, a compassionate God, and a generous God.  We glorify your name. 

As we praise and thank You for Your gifts, we ask that when our hearts are full of fear and worry, You continue to grant us courage and hope. When anxiety is infectious and widening, grant us peace and reassurance. When impossibilities seem to close every door and window, grant us imagination and resourcefulness. When distrust twists our thinking, grant us healing and illumination. When our spirits are daunted and weakened, grant us soaring wings and strengthened dreams.

Gracious and holy God, lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth. Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill our hearts, our world, and our universe.

As we go through the trials of life, help us to realize that you are with us at all times and in all things; that we have no secrets from you; and that your loving grace enfolds us for eternity. In the security of your embrace we pray for those who suffer illness and infirmity, that they too may feel your loving lifting them up and sustaining them. 

For all this we pray in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ who taught these words of prayer: 

Our Father, Who art in heaven, 

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily break

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the honor, and the glory,

now and forever, 

Amen