We thank you for the world around us
and ask for your guidance as we act as stewards on your behalf.
May we use your resources wisely,
that generations to come
might not have to deal with our neglect or our stubbornness.
We thank you, too, for the people in our lives.
Help us to love them selflessly and serve our neighbors humbly.
May we receive your blessings not as our due,
but as opportunities to share your grace.
As we approach your throne this day, we acknowledge our hunger.
Forgive us when that hunger is wasted on things that don’t last.
Help us instead to hunger for the bread of life—
your word that, in the wilderness of our lives,
comes down from heaven and fills us with your love.
And forgive us when we thirst for power or vengeance
or the fulfillment of desires
that do not reflect your Image implanted in our souls.
Grant us instead a thirst for righteousness and justice and peace.
Give our hearts the assurance,
as your servant John once wrote,
that if we confess our sins,
in faithfulness and justice you will forgive us our sins
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Thus may we with peace of mind
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Thus may we with peace of mind
hand over not only our sins, but also our burdens to you.
Hear us now as we pray in silence for those people and situations
that currently weigh so heavy upon us.
……………………
These prayers we lay before you in the Name of Jesus Christ,
your Son, our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns, God forevermore. Amen.
Hear us now as we pray in silence for those people and situations
that currently weigh so heavy upon us.
……………………
These prayers we lay before you in the Name of Jesus Christ,
your Son, our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns, God forevermore. Amen.
