Creator God,
We lift to you our prayers for the
world.
We thank you for those places in our
world where peace, unity, love, generosity, abundance and purpose abound, signs
of your Kingdom bursting through,
And we lift to you tonight the many
places where these things are sorely needed and longed for
We pray for those places where
lasting peace seems a far off dream. Places where conflict is brewing, or where
it rages on, or where it seems to have finished but nothing will ever be the
same and there is so much to rebuild.
We think too of Christchurch and Sri
Lanka, places where the human tendency to think in terms of us and them has
recently led to violence and grief upon grief. Bring your healing, loving God. Help
us to learn how to live together. Help us to see the humanity in each other. Bring
your peace.
As the Federal election in our own
country fast approaches we pray for genuine leadership. We pray for integrity
and justice, for wise stewardship and for decisions based on your values.
And we thank you with great rejoicing
for the rain! And we pray for those places where there’s not enough safe
drinking water, where there’s not enough rain for the crops.
Refresh the earth with gentle rain,
provider God, and help us to steward our resources well.
And Lord, who walked amongst us, we
pray for our community, for the people who live in the streets around this
church. Whether or not they know it, you see and know each one and love them.
You know the ones who are doing well and the ones who are struggling.
You know the broken, the overlooked and
the disengaged. You know their every need.
Merciful God, the lifter of heads, may
your presence be known in our wider community. May the peace, unity, love,
generosity, abundance and purpose that comes from you abound in us and around
us and through us, your church,
and may it pour lavishly into the world
around about us.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
