Prayers For Our Country

Hope For The New Year

sjr — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:41:09 +0000

“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new a glorious morn.” O Holy Night (a Christmas carol)

Lord your birth reminds us that amidst the anxiety, fear, anger, and disappointment of our political life, there is hope. We have the opportunity to change our ways, to seek truth, to offer compassion, to pursue justice, to speak with kindness and civility even where we don’t agree. One person can shine a light into the darkness and together we create new patterns and a better future for all. Show us your ways O Lord, teach us your paths, and strengthen us for the year ahead.

Amen

Welcome

sjr — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:39:03 +0000

We invite you to read over and reflect on past prayers, and also to contribute your prayers by sending an e-mail to prayforourcountry@gmail.com. Together we can make a difference. Matthew 18:19-20.

Needing God’s Guidance

sjr — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 01:47:05 +0000

Lord, as we see the hungry and those without health care,

Teach us compassion.

As our economy begins to grow in fits and starts, leaving many behind,

Teach us to share.

As media reports excite rather than educate,

Lead us toward wisdom.

As individual citizens are asked to cut back or give more while flaws in our economic and regulatory systems go uncorrected,

Help us pursue justice.

As we face an uncertain future,

Fill us with hope and help us to follow your word.

Let us hear your voice and learn to listen to each other. Harden not our hearts.

Have mercy on us all O Lord.

Amen.

Civility In the New Year

sjr — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:59:45 +0000

But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other . . . Colossians 3:8-9

At the start of a new year we begin with shots in Tuscon bringing grief, recriminations, calls for reconciliation, and bewilderment.

Lord, help us to be a better people than we are.

Help us to seek wisdom over partisan power, justice over greed, forgiveness over hate. Help us to be honest with ourselves and with others, both as to what we think we know and what we do not. Comfort all who grieve for the victims of violence. And as we mourn, fill us also with compassion for those whose mental illness goes untreated, those who cannot find work, those who struggle to find food and shelter, and those who only fear the future. Turn us from fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy. Turn us towards kindness, patience, self-control, and the desire to live together in peace. (Galatians 5:19-23). Equip us to find new ways of living together and new ways of sharing and service.

Show us your ways, O Lord, teach us your paths; guide us in your truth and teach us, for you are God our Savior and our hope is in you all day long. Ps. 25:4-5

We can be a better people than we have been. Help us to change O Lord.

Amen

Good News

sjr — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 04:03:32 +0000

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I will bring you news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Luke 2:10

The good news is this: God is with us. Our troubles will not last. We will move forward. We are not alone. God is with us, and God will see us through. Amen

Truth and Courage

sjr — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 02:55:24 +0000

“I am a firm believer in people. If given truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. “ Abraham Lincoln

Lord, we can be a hardheaded, stiff-necked people, resistant to your word. (Ex. 32:9, Heb. 3:8)

We are often a fearful people, easily swayed by those who would manipulate and divide.

We can be a selfish people, obsessed with material comfort.

We are often an angry people, more willing to blame others than to accept our own accountability in creating a world where so many suffer.

Help us O Lord. Give us the courage to face real facts and look for long term solutions.

Give us the compassion to share our material wealth with those who have little or none.

Teach us to forgive, and to look at the plank in our own eye before pointing out the splinter in others. (Lk. 6:42)

Help us to listen, with open hearts and minds, to the cries of those around us.

Help us to be worthy of the trust and hopes of those who came before us.

Lead us forward O Lord.

Amen.

Loving, With All of Our Mind

sjr — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 05:01:37 +0000

Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37

Help us O Lord to love you with all of our mind. Help us to challenge the “facts” we are fed when others would lead us astray. Teach us to ask hard questions, to study our history, to learn from our lapses, and to imagine how our world might be if we followed your message of love, compassion, and self-control. Save us from demagogues who would narrow our vision with appeals to fear and anger. Turn us from our eagerness to grasp at easy but false truths. Renew in us a love of learning and a willingness to explore new information and new ideas. Help us to turn away from false gods and counterfeit promises. Turn us instead to mercy, to justice, and to a closer walk with you. Guide us, O Lord. Amen

Laying Down Our Lives

sjr — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:10:56 +0000

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. . . . This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. . . . This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. . . . Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 2:7; 3:11, 16, 18.

Who is our brother? Not just the one who looks like us or worships with us or lives like us. Luke 10:25-37. Lord, help us to see our common humanity. Let us look with compassion on those who seek safety and security in a new country. Help us to understand and accept those who would build a new house of worship — different from ours yet with a message of peace and tolerance that mirrors your own. Help us to meet the needs of those who struggle to find food and shelter, and to build basic skills. When we distort facts for partisan ends, rely on our own faith as a reason to hate, judge without mercy, and hold fast to our fears, forgive us O Lord. Forgive us and help us, through love, service and self-control, to find the peace, patience, kindness, and goodness that are the fruit of your Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23. Show us the better way O Lord, for our hope is in you. Ps. 25:4-5.

Amen.

A Note For Our Readers

sjr — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:26:40 +0000

During 2009 we posted a prayer every week. During 2010 we posted less frequently and focused on prayers that reflect our country’s history. During 2011 we will continue to post occasionally with more of a focus on current events. We invite you to read over and reflect on past prayers, and also to contribute your prayers by sending an e-mail to prayforourcountry@gmail.com. Together we can make a difference. Matthew 18:19-20.

Those Who Went Before Us

sjr — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:10:22 +0000

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