Morning Prayer

One Sunday in April, I led the morning prayer at JM:

Creating God, sustaining God, loving God, we come before you in worship and prayer this morning, thankful that we are sheep in your flock, thankful that you are our shepherd.

We confess that we need your guidance and direction and that so often we ignore it.

We confess that there are those among us and around us who are hungry, suffering, and oppressed, and we do nothing to ease their pain.

We confess that we know the world needs to see you, to hear you, to know you, and that we do not act as your light in the world.

Forgive us, o God, for we have failed to be an obedient church. We are in need of your grace.

This morning, we ask that your abundant and life-giving grace surround us and fill this, your church, with your light.

There are those among us who are sick today. We lift their names to you in our minds and hearts and ask for your healing touch for them.

There are those among us who are lonely, sad, or afraid. We pray for their comfort.

We lift this community in prayer today, and ask you to show us how to be a force for change. Give us the courage and strength to try to change our world.

We pray for your world, and for all those who lead it.

We pray for your world, and for all those who inhabit it.

We pray for your world, that we would care for it.

This morning we thank you for those who have come before us, who have heard your call and who have obeyed. We thank you for the legacy they have left for us – this church, this community.

We thank you for those who hear your call today, and who follow you. Open all of our hearts and minds so that we will hear you calling, too.

We thank you for ministries you have inspired that seek to do your work in the world.

We thank you for this church – for all of the ways it acts as your hands and feet in ministry.

And as we worship together this morning, we ask that you would be in our song, in our prayers, in our praise so that when we leave here today, we will know that we carry you with us, through our lives, into the world. May we be of service to you this week.

We ask all of this in the name of your son, whose prayer we pray today as one.