Sunday Pastoral Prayer (August 20) - Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC

August 20, 2023

O God, thank you for your amazing technicolor grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. How sweet the sound that can lead us to forgiveness and reconciliation. How sweet the sound that can make us tough enough to be kind. O God, thank you for your amazing technicolor grace!

 

We pray for our world to be filled with more of your grace. Where there is division, anger, conflict, injustice, and revenge, fill us with more of your amazing technicolor grace. 

 

Where there are misunderstandings, relational brokenness, hurt feelings, and envy, fill us with more of your amazing technicolor grace.

 

For those who our on our church’s prayer list and other joys and concerns that are on our hearts today, fill them with more of your amazing technicolor grace.

 

We continue our prayers for the people in Maui who have lost so much from the devastating wildfires. May they know of your grace, especially through the relief efforts that are providing needed supplies and resources. 

 

Thank you for your grace with the start of a new school year that offers new possibilities for us to learn and grow in our faith. May all of us be your students and your disciples through the reading of scripture, daily prayers, and by serving others. We have so much to learn in what it means to have a growing faith.

 

As we reflect on our past week, we can see how your amazing technicolor grace filled our lives; like when Penny and I were driving home this past Tuesday evening, heading west, and for that entire 40-minute drive, we got to see one of the most spectacular sunsets we have ever seen. Thank you for these holy moments when your amazing technicolor grace is on full display. And may it always be on full display in each of our lives for we pray this in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray together…

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.