Friends, please join me in prayer on this 12th Sunday of the COVID-19 crisis:
Heavenly Father, we seek you today, knowing that according to your promise, those who seek will find. And we thank you for the awesome truth that those who seek to know You will find you to be the Good Shepherd, our King, our Salvation, and our Friend. You, Lord, are the one who does not change, whose love never fails, who cares especially for the least among us.
As we come to You, You bless us with your mercies each day, and we can experience peace in our storm. When times are good, we praise you, and when times are bad, we accept that You are in control and have a good plan. Lord, we sometimes become impatient or doubtful. Remind us that we need to trust in You with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding, remembering that with you a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years, like a day. You will not fail.
Father of all, we are grieved, we are upset, we are worried. Each of us sees the world a little bit differently, but You see the big picture, all of time past, all of time to come. Help us, perfect One, when we become angry – not to sin, whether in thought, word, or deed. Help us, merciful God, to recognize our pride, to humble ourselves before you, to reconcile with others, to change.
Precious Jesus, we come to you with faith that You are listening and interceding for us. We want to be like You, to love people your way, to put the will of God before our own plans, to recognize the needs of others and respond with loving words and actions. May we be obedient to your command to love each other.
We pray, Lord, for the servants among us, for elected officials, for health care workers, for those who enforce the law and respond to emergency situations, for the leaders in our churches, knowing that they have an important calling in society, one that requires humility, strength, and wisdom. May we support them with prayer and hold them to high standards.
We ask you, Holy Spirit, to surround and support everyone who is unable to visit a loved one in the hospital or a nursing home, and to take special care of those who are elderly, sick, or isolated.
Jesus, you told us that in the world we will have trouble, but also that You have overcome the world and will never leave or abandon us, so we reach for your hand and believe that you will lead us in ways everlasting, for our sake and for the sake of the world in which we live, knowing that You will come again and that we will be with You forever. Amen.
But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages
to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many;
and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin,
but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:26-27