Pastoral Prayer (July 9) - Athens First UMC

[Our little Methodists are some of our best greeters on Sunday morning. After the last worship service, a new group of people take over our front entrance benches; guys from the Athens Copperheads baseball team waiting for the team bus to take them to their away game. Thank you, God for helping our church to be a haven of blessing and peace.]  

Thank you for giving us quiet moments when we can be still and know that you are God. Thank you for giving us those special moments like when we are all alone in a chapel and we pour out our prayers to you. Thank you for giving us moments like when we go to bed after a long day of clouds and rain, and you provide the most beautiful golden sunset we have ever seen.

O God, you know how to refresh our souls and provide us with a better way. And so, we come before you today to especially pray for people we know who are in need of a better way, a way of hope, peace, and new life.

We pray for those who are struggling to provide for their needs. We pray for those who are facing medical challenges. We pray for those who are experiencing the pain of grief. We pray for those who feel alone. We pray for those who are feeling empty and who are looking for a new direction in life. And we pray for those who are anxious about the future and for all of us this morning as pray for those who are searching for the missing kayaker from yesterday’s boating accident in the Hocking River.

Still all of our souls this day, O God. Show us a better way, a way that leads to fullness of life, to joy, to a renewed sense of peace, and to an assurance of your forgiving love. Still our souls, O God. Quiet our souls.

(MOMENTS OF SILENCE)

And in the stillness of this time of prayer, whatever might be troubling our hearts in this moment, help us to claim the name where Abraham’s faith was tested from our Genesis reading this morning. You gave that place the new name, “The Lord will provide.”

We claim that name for our souls this day, because you always show us a better way.  And now, teach us again to pray the words that Jesus taught us to pray… “Our Father, who art in heaven…”