Heavenly Father,
In the space between now and what we are hoping for, we are thankful that you walk with us. In fact you go before us and have prepared a place us, but you are also leading the way for today if we will listen. Teach us Lord and tune our hearts to the whispers of your Spirit. You have given us to your Son Jesus Christ that we might live in the communion of your Kingdom and your fellowship— the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We praise you and rejoice in your promise. But, how long Lord?
Sometimes the quiet is not so quiet because of the anxieties of our souls.
Sometimes the quiet is not so quiet because of the anger in our streets.
Sometimes the quiet is not so quiet because of the alienation on our screens.
For some of us the silence we have been driven towards hurts like shoes that are too tight.
We feel worn. We are missing each other and we are missing a sense of ease.
Oh Lord send your Spirit to us and grant us courage to surrender fully.
Release us from harmful patterns of thinking and feeling and acting that have ensnared us.
Bind up the wounds that irritate and remind us of our shame.
Oh Lord heal us.
We lift up students at universities and colleges as they draw near to the end of this term. Help them, Lord, to study with you. Help them delight in your Creation. Grant them wisdom from above so that their sense of worth and wellbeing does not reside in the marks but in what you think of them.
We lift up to you our friends at the Athens Ministry Centre in Athens, Greece. Bless them as we enter this season of Advent. Open hearts across the world toward those on the journey for refuge. Fortify your servants sharing their lives and the Gospel with your love and hope and faith. Oh Lord, please move in close to the vulnerable who feel caught in the snare of the wicked; provide them a way out and a way into safety and healing.
Lord we need you. We wait on you. We listen for you. We love you.
(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.
This Prayer was part of the first Sunday of Advent Weekend Broadcast on 27 Nov 2020, Origin Church.