Posts Tagged ‘faithfulness’

Easter 2022

April 18, 2022

He has risen

giving us hope

that we too can love sacrificially,

strengthen our communities,

pursue justice, and

survive oppression,

together.

Hope

that we can change the world for our children – all children.

Hope

that they might thrive, finding

food, water, shelter, and opportunities to use the talents God gave them,

together.

Hope

that we might move towards love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,

and away from the politics of power and control.

He has risen.

Alleluia!

Amen

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Bearing Fruit

April 18, 2021

Galatians 5:22-26

Help us Lord bear the fruit of your Spirit,

love and joy,

free us from our hate and fear;

peace,

heal our anger and resentment;

patience, kindness, and goodness,

may we see and nurture the goodness embedded in all your children;

faithfulness,

let your command to love our neighbor as ourselves guide our way;

gentleness,

may we forgive ourselves and others as we move forward;

self-control,

may we think harder, choose our words more carefully, listen well, and act wisely.

Help us bear fruit O Lord.

Amen

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Being Faithful In Politics

March 8, 2020

Lord, help us to find the information we need to make wise choices. Help us to filter the loud voices, the brash voices, the voices that lie.

Give us the courage to engage, to reach-out rather than retreat; to listen and work with others rather than to distort, deflect, or dismiss the thoughts that challenge ours.

Help us Lord, be a reconciling rather than a dividing influence as work to rebuild our communities and our country.

Amen

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An Advent Prayer

December 21, 2019

The following pastoral prayer was offered by the Rev. Jimmy Spear during worship at First Christian Church, Columbia MO on December 15, 2019 and is shared here with permission.

Lord of delight and surprise, as we pass the half way mark in these weeks of waiting you have come to us yet again with opportunity, love, and support.   We have in our walk of life reflected on our blessings, your compassion, and our need to be a people of light. It is your light shining in darkness that makes all the difference to our living.

Lord, let us not lack in faith.  Let us not forget the message found in a season of light and love.  Let us not look around and see it is what we don’t have — instead, direct us in ways of preparation  — tell us the prophesies that have guided our people toward a renewed faith, allow us to be your hands and heart in times and places of need, help us to see how much we do have.  

As these short days of winter freeze us so, let our spirits keep a warmth and brightness of light that is infectious.  Clearing our blindness to the needs of others, strengthen us and move us to places of action and times of cooperation. Help us to truly listen to one another and in our listening find again what matters most in our relationships and in the needs of the world.  

Come along with us, O God that we may honor the words of the prophets…making a path in the dry places of the world, clearing our eyes to see faith anew…and in this day, rising up from these pews to behold and believe the wondrous power and joy of Christ’s birth.   Amen.

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Prayers For Peace

September 11, 2014

O God, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are fixed on you . . . Isaiah 26:3

On this 13th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, we pray for an end to hate and violence throughout our world.  We remember and pray for those who died in the attacks, that they might be at peace with you. We pray for their families and friends, that in their grieving they may find the peace which transcends all understanding. [Php.4:7] And we pray for all who remain in our unstable and violent world, that we may find new ways of living together.

We pray for peace O God.

O God, our creator, look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and guide us as we work through our struggle and confusion. [#3]*

We pray for peace O God.

O Lord you have commanded us to love our enemies:  Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you. [#6]

We pray for peace O God.

Give us the grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, hurt and anger, and whatever else may hinder us from peaceful union and concord. Help us to seek the holy bonds of truth and peace, of compassion and charity. [#14]

We pray for peace O God.

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom all nations and people work in harmony, guide us in love. [#3, 4]  Lead us from dissension, factions and selfish ambitions to a world abundant in  the fruits of your Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  [Galatians 5:19-26]  Guide all the nations, — and each of us as individuals in our interactions with family, neighbors, and community, —  into the ways of justice and truth, peace and love.  [5]

Grant us peace O God.

 

* Adapted in part from The Book of Common Prayer, “Prayers and Thanksgivings”,  No.s 3 -6, 14.

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