Posts Tagged ‘freedom’
July 4, 2022
Lord we thank you for our freedom and your many gifts.
O beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain.*
We thank you for opportunities to grow and for a prosperous land. Help us to share so that all might thrive.
For purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain.
We thank you for the beauty and abundance with which we are surrounded. Let it inspire and encourage us to reach out to others and share your love.
America, America, God shed his grace on thee.
We thank you for your forgiveness and mercy. May we extend that to others, forsaking tribalism, factionalism, and hyper-partisanship. Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. (Luke 10:25-37; Galatians 3:26-29).
And crowned thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.
We thank you Lord for the many diverse peoples that make up our country. May we see the richness of your creation in this diversity and resist those who would exploit our differences and sow division.
Help us Lord to use our freedoms wisely, overcoming evil with good and serving one another with love. (Romans 12:21; Galatians 5:13).
Guide us towards peace, O Lord.
Amen
*italicized lines from the hymn America The Beautiful
Other July 4 Posts:
Freedom, 2021
Preserving Our Liberties, 2020
Pray For Our Country, 2015
Freedom From Fear, 2013
Tags:abundance, beauty, brotherhood, courage, diversity, freedom, Independence Day, July 4, love, peace, wisdom
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July 4, 2021
On this 4th of July Lord help us pause and see how much we have to lose if we lose our democracy.
Move us away from the resentments, and divisions that enable the slow creep of autocracy.
May we recognize how much we use our shared freedoms of thought, expression, and association, and the vibrancy those lend to our communities.
Help us protect these for both ourselves and others, slowing the corrosive attacks on views that differ from our own, and challenging appeals to hate and fear.
For the growth of tyranny in its many forms will eventually threaten even those of us who enjoy quiet neighborhoods, regular schedules, good food, and adequate pay.
Without change, even we will some day awake and look at the wreckage and wonder, how did we go astray?
O Lord, do not abandon us to our sinful ways.
Awaken us, guide us, and help us to be better than we are.
Amen.
Tags:autocracy, country, division, fear, freedom, hate, peace, politics, Prayer, resentment, sin, tyranny, United States, USA
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October 11, 2020
“Show us your ways O Lord . . . “ (Ps. 25 v. 4-5)
You have shown us a better way Lord. A way of
- compassion,
- love,
- mercy,
- forgiveness,
- generosity,
- patience,
- kindness, and
- self-control.
And you have shown us the way we should not go. A way of
- factions,
- hate,
- oppression,
- anger,
- fear,
- self-absorption,
- death, and
- destruction.
Forgive our missteps and misdirection, and guide us into the better way.
Amen
Tags:anger, compassion, country, factions, fear, finding our way, forgiveness, freedom, future, generosity, greed, guidance, guide, hate, kindness, love, mercy, misdirection, opression, patience, politics, Prayer, self-control, selfishness, United States, USA
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August 9, 2020
Free us from our fears O Lord, so that we might embrace the freedoms we have create our future.
Freedom to move beyond prejudice, beyond partisanship, beyond the old narratives of division and anger and loss.
Freedom to grow in relationship with others.
Freedom to learn and grow in wisdom and understanding
Redeem all of your children Lord, that we might heal from the sins of our past.
Release us from ties that too tightly bind us to ritual, to place, to power, to the familiar, so that we might explore and experience the beauty of all of your creation.
Forgive us and guide us, O Lord.
Amen
Tags:country, fears, forgiveness, freedom, partisanship, politics, Prayer, prejudice, redemption, USA
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July 12, 2020
Today’s prayer comes from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.
Almighty God, who created us in your own image:
Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression;
and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you , and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Tags:community, courage, Creator, freedom, God, grace, justice, mercy, oppression, peace, politics, Prayer
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July 4, 2020
You my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Galatians 5:13-15
Lord, we know that freedom isn’t free and democracy is not self-sustaining.
Both take courage, and persistence, and regard for others.
Help us to do our part.
Help us use our freedom not just to claim “liberty,” but to seek justice for all, to care for one another even if that means wearing a mask, and to reach across partisan divides with love and forgiveness.
Open our eyes and our hearts that we might free those who suffer in our economy from want and need and loss of opportunity, and find ways to prosper together.
Help us to seek your truth and serve you O Lord.
Amen
Tags:courage, democracy, forgiveness, freedom, Independence Day, justice, liberty, love, persistence, prosperity
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July 4, 2013
“. . . where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” 2 Co. 3:17
“Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32
Lord, on this 4th of July, grant us freedom from our fears:
Fear of moving forward.
Fear that feeds cynicism and despair.
Fear that flashes into anger and hate.
Fear that is reflected in our selfishness.
Fear that fuels our partisan divides.
Fear that crushes hope.
Lead us from fear toward love and compassion, caring and community, for there we will find you (1 John 4:8). In you there is no fear (1 John 4:18). Free from fear, we can find the way to a better future: one country, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Amen.
Tags:country, fear, freedom, love, pray, Prayer, United States, USA
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May 31, 2010
Lord, on this Memorial Day we give you thanks for those who gave us life, who taught us how to live, and whose memories bring both pain and laughter. We thank you for the stories that shape our lives, and the gift of photography that helps us to understand our past. We thank you for our families and our friends O Lord.
On this Memorial Day we give you thanks for those who fight for our country and those who have died in its service. Let us be ever aware of their sacrifice and the full costs of war. Help us be wise in our use of the freedoms they defend and in the policies we choose. Help us to be generous in our support of those who serve and of their friends and families. Help us to pursue peace in our lifetimes O Lord.
And on this Memorial Day we give you thanks O Lord for your presence in our lives and for your promise of eternal life. Help us to follow in your ways, to lean not on our own understanding, and to find comfort and meaning in our memories. Help us to guide our children to value the past, find hope for the future, and follow us in faith.
We thank you O Lord, for lives present and past, and for the cycle of life that keeps us searching for you.
Amen
Tags:ancestors, country, freedom, memory, Prayer, USA
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Prayers For Our Country 