Prayer

Prayer of the People, 1 March 2020

March 3, 2020 0 Comments

Trust God — based on Psalm 118:5-9

Heavenly Father,

We enter Your presence with Thanksgiving and Your courts with joy because we delight in Your love, goodness, and righteousness.  We focus all of our attention on You. Thank you for bringing us into the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We are thankful that when we call on You in distress, 
You answer us and set us in a wide open spaces. 

We call out to You today for those harmed by the coronavirus, the escalation in the Syrian conflict, the Delhi riots, and globally for migrants whose paths are blocked. Please comfort them and bring people who care into their lives.

Lord, we pray for justice in the Wet’suwet’en conflict; please let honour and respect prevail as the issues are more carefully considered. Lord, we ask for Your help, guidance, comfort, and just, so that people can experience life in wide open spaces.

Help all humanity walk in the communion of the Father, Son, and Spirit and know that You are for us, and that we do not have to live in fear.   

The Lord is for us and helps us.  Please Let Vanessa sense Your help for her and her family as they grieve their loss today. Show us ways to offer support.

(Please take a moment and pray for people God brings to your mind.)

Your Word, Lord reminds us: It is better for us to trust in you than to put confidence in humanity. We need each other, but there is no substitute for your love.

We deeply trust You and ask You to help our unbelief.  You are a righteous, good, beautiful, and true God. We rest in You and Your ways.

In Jesus’ Name, amen.

Please join me in praying the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

Prepared by Ellen and Craig O’Brien

Prayer

Prayer of the People, 16 February 2020

February 18, 2020 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

We delight in you and your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You have marked out for us a well-watered garden. As we walk with you our fellowship pulses  with life and yields much fruit. Thank you for the assurance and confidence we have with you through the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son Jesus Christ.

This morning we arose with the intention of praising you for the mighty works of your hand. The immensity of the universe beckons us as do the molecular wonders of our bodies. You have created with wisdom — and it is beautiful!

Oh that we would sit at your feet and learn from you. Teach us to consider our days and our ways with wisdom. Enlarge our vision of Jesus as Lord and form us into a people of your love, truth, and grace.

May the ways of your Kingdom be seen in the work of our hands and minds. Redeem our lives from despair and from deceit. We gladly stand with you for the redemption of people so we seek your righteousness in all things. We yearn for our full deliverance from the lies of satan and from the corruption of our rebellion.

Come Lord Jesus. Establish communities in our cities where there is:

healing from addiction.
trust in our relationships.
goodness in our governance.
and justice for those deprived of it.

Please bless the work of Vancouver Urban Ministries, Community of Hope, and the Athens Ministry Centre.

Come Lord Jesus. Establish churches in our cities where:

the good news of Jesus is shared among students.
the journey through doubt is heard.
the growing pains of growth are given grace.
the lonely find courage to connect.

Please bless the work of our Langara Oakridge Team here in Vancouver and of Canvas Church in Victoria.

Come Lord Jesus Come. May your Spirit blow through this garden and carry the fragrance of our fellowship beyond these walls. So we pray as you taught us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

Prayer

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Prayer of the People, 9 Feb 2020

February 12, 2020 0 Comments

Land + People

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for your love and mercy shown us through the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through Him you have brought us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We rejoice in your welcome and embrace. This has changed our lives. We take up the truth of the Gospel and the truth of your Word as a shield against the fiery darts of the enemy. What you say about us — dismantles the stories of guilt, shame, and fear that we have been telling ourselves.

Come Lord Jesus and walk with us.

Pour your love into our lives by your Holy Spirit so that peace rises up over anxiety. Give us compassion for people and a generosity of spirit toward them. Oh Lord, teach us the ways of peace so that we may not assume an enemy where there could have been a friend. We would lay down the old grudges that are destroying our souls and our capacities for friendship.

Come Lord Jesus and walk with us.

Oh Lord, your ancient enemy seems to work overtime seeking to dismantle your glory in Creation and blind us to your goodness. Forgive us Lord; we have given away the life-giving promises of your presence in exchange for cheap pleasures — but Oh how they have cost us. Save us through power of your life given in exchange for us.

Come Lord Jesus and walk with us.

We look past our fears of sickness and ask for you to comfort the families of those who have lost loved ones to this new coronavirus. Have mercy Lord.

We look past our fears for security and ask you to provide hospitable hearts and homes for the people fleeing violence in Idlib. Have mercy Lord.

We look past our fears for superiority and ask you to provide us with wisdom and respect for the limits, boundaries of Indigenous peoples. Have mercy Lord.

Oh how you love us Lord. Come, walk with us and teach us the ways of love.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.


Prayer

Prayer of the People, 2 February 2020

February 4, 2020 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

You have called us to walk in love with You. Thank you for bringing us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

You have called us to be Your light. It is hard to do this when we feel unloved, forgotten, and unworthy.  We ask that You will help us receive Your goodness, forgiveness, and lovingkindness. Shine the light of your Word and your Presence in our lives. 

Light up the darkness we have hidden in because of shame, guilt, and fear. Cause us to see as you see. Heal us of blind-spots conditioned by our society, by our families, by our experiences, and by our choices.

And Lord give us courage fuelled by the experience of being loved by you. Sometimes we just don’t want to see — we are afraid it will be too painful to acknowledge and to enter into the pain some people are living with constantly.

We lift up people who are on the journey for refuge in Greece. Allow them to experience Your loving Presence and provision; show us how to join You in receiving them and in caring for them in your name.

On the continent of Africa people living close to the land are facing a food security crisis in several countries. Lord, the locusts swarm and eat harvests intended for people’s food; we ask for your intervention. We pray that you would stop the locusts.

Oh Lord you are like a tree whose leaves bring healing. You bring healing to the nations. There is lots of fear over the coronavirus.  We ask that you give health officials, doctors, and nurses wisdom. May you spring up like a tree of healing in Wuhan for those who feel trapped. Help us all to turn from fear to You and to receive Your strength, love, and wisdom. 
Help us, Jesus.

Oh Lord strengthen us so that the manners of fear do not keep us from being openhearted with others. Cause us to be a community of love and obedience walking by Your Spirit — an attractive light others desire to be in. Then, images of grief and struggle may move us, stories of hardship and overcoming may inspire us and we will live the story You envision for us: a people who walk together in the way of Jesus — loving each other through all our struggles and seeing your kingdom come.

In your name we pray.  Amen.

Please join me in praying the Lord’s prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

Prepared by Ellen and Craig O’Brien

Prayer

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Prayer of the People, 26 January 2020

January 28, 2020 0 Comments

Heavenly Father, 

We acknowledge your faithfulness in love, provision, wisdom, and presence. You are gracious, glorious and good. Thank you for bringing us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We are often distracted, and sometimes unfaithful. Please forgive us. We are living among many and loving many who have no faith in You or in Your ways. Forgive us for forgetting you. We scatter our attention and our favour to many causes and relationships, yet our hearts become divided in their loyalty to You. Realign the affections of our heart to You.

We pause before You in consideration of this absurdity — our regular distraction from You.   (Pause)

We are asking you to raise up leaders after Your own heart, who will lead us with knowledge and understanding.  We pray for the Peruvian elections, the leaders of Iraq who must discern between many voices, the leaders deciding what to do about the unrest in Lebanon, the leaders addressing violence in Mali that is spilling into Niger and Burkina Faso, the leaders deciding policy for  India’s immigration, and the leaders in Canada impacting our daily lives. May all of these leaders seek Your face and Your ways.

We yield to You our sense of how things should be and no longer want to follow the stubbornness of our wayward hearts.  Make us a people who are faithful to You and to Your ways of living — Just as Jesus was.

You long to treat us as your children and to shower us with blessings; we long to receive your guidance and blessings. Make us a faithful people who trust You.  We return to You with all of our hearts and ask You to cure us of backsliding.

 Lord, there are causes for grief all around us – earthquakes in Turkey, locusts eating crops in Kenya, floods in Brazil, the coronavirus outbreak and so many people in China quarantined.  All of these pain inducing situations we entrust to Your wise response. We cast all of our worries on You because You care for us.

Oh Lord, forgive us.
Oh Lord, help us.
Oh Lord, strengthen us; make us faithful to You and to others.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Please join me in praying the Lord’s prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

Prepared by Ellen and Craig O’Brien

Prayer