Monday, July 1, 2024

Sunday (June 30) Pastoral Prayer

June 30, 2024
Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC

Lord Jesus, as our hymn says, we come before you today offering everything to you in prayer. We’re not exactly sure what grief Joseph Scriven was experiencing in his life when he wrote the words of this hymn, but it’s good to know that we can come to you at any time to receive your comforting love.

 

Like David, teach us what it means to grieve with hope, knowing that you are with us in the midst of our sorrows and times of sadness. You have also taught us what it means to grieve when you stood at the grave of Lazarus and poured out your heart in prayer.

 

You were not alone in that moment because you were communing with your Heavenly Father and you were also sharing your grief with Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha. Remind us in our times of grief, that we do not need to grieve alone because you are a present help in times of trouble. And thank you for giving us each other so that we can lift each other up in prayer.

 

This morning, we especially pray for those who are grieving, whether it be the loss of a loved one or some other kind of loss in their lives. May they know of your comforting compassion and healing love. Remind us to be gentle with the people we encounter because we all carry some type of grief in our hearts in any given moment.

 

We also lift up to you other specific needs and prayer concerns that are on our hearts and minds as well as our own personal needs that we bring to you this day. Thank you for this time in our worship together that you invite us to give everything to you in prayer.

 

Even now, we join together in praying the words that you taught us to say…

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.


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