First a prayer on this Pentecost Sunday and then an invitation.
Create in me a clean heart,
oh God
and renew a right spirit
within me.
Our Father in heaven, we need you this hour. We are grieved and distressed by what is happening in our country and in our own lives. We are reminded that the coronavirus crisis did not replace the difficulties of life, but added to them.
People in our communities have been struggling with a drug epidemic, with alcohol addictions, with isolation and depression, with prejudice, with broken families, and with hopelessness for longer than we can remember. Now, so many have lost employment and are facing financial uncertainty, wondering what the future holds for their families.
And in this hour, our hearts are heavy with news of a tragic death in Minneapolis and with the boiling over of pain and anger in the nation’s cities. Lord, we pray for peace to be restored, for true justice and fairness, for the searching of hearts and cleansing of prejudice and bitterness. We are sickened by how people can speak and act with such disregard for each other, by the sin that lives in each of us,
Create in me a clean heart,
oh God
and renew a right spirit
within me.
Help us, Holy Spirit, to humble ourselves, confess our sins, our prejudice, our self-righteousness, our apathy, our pride. Without you, God, we are lost. You made a promise to your people many years ago, saying “ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
We believe that you keep your promises. Help us to do our part. Renew our minds and open our eyes to the needs around us. May each of us notice and respond to your nudges to love our neighbors and to, in your power, be obedient to even love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
We praise you for who you are, knowing that you sit enthroned above the earth and the heavens and that you are omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent God. While we were still sinners with no deserving of your forgiveness, you sent your only Son to teach us how to love and how to participate in your kingdom by laying down our own lives for others. We can only do that by relying on you.
In Jesus’ powerful name we pray. Amen.
My invitation:
I have just finished reading The Prayers of David – Becoming a Person after God’s Own Heart by Rick and Melissa Killian and Bordon Books. Each of the twelve chapters begins with a Psalm and tells a narrative of the circumstances David was facing as he wrote his prayer songs. It is my desire to share these chapters with you by doing a LIVE FACEBOOK reading at 1:00 pm beginning tomorrow, Monday, June 1. I plan to archive the videos on my Facebook page if you want to listen at a different time.
Let’s seek God’s face together!