Prayers for Sunday 7 November 2010

Father GOD, in our songs and prayers we  have praised and adored you,  in our confessions we have sought your forgiveness  and in reading  your word  we have found  comfort and challenge. May the whole experience  of worship this morning be to your glory and a means of renewal  and grace to us all.
Make our hearts truly grateful  for all your care and love that we have sung, prayed and read about. Help us to appreciate our total dependency upon you and that every good and perfect gift comes from you alone.

We give thanks for the breath taking  wonder of  your creation , from star lit space, to our  local autumnal beauty seen in the leaves we can hold in our hands. For our free will, our intellect, our  emotions and  all the blessings  of life that we enjoy. Thank you for the greatest gift of all, our Saviour  Jesus, he alone makes every thing plain and credible, regarding our origin and destiny. With grateful hearts we acknowledge the guiding and enabling power of your spirit and for the hope  of eternal life that is ours, through faith in him who reigns with you in glory.

Influenced by your perfect love, truth and way, we become so sensitive to the needs and suffering of others and our broken, fallen world.   So in moments of silent reflection we bring before you the  situations  we have seen on TV screens, the news we’ve heard and read about; we lift them up to you now. (silence)

May our  personal recollections and  concerns, join and ascend  as one wide embracing prayer.

In the same way we recall  the needs of those we love and  others we care about . We briefly recall  their  circumstance, and  whisper names………[silence]

May these silent  expressions intercede on their behalf that they might know  Divine influence for good in their lives and circumstances.
We open our hearts  and  bring before you the things that scare, worry and  burden us,  We silently scan them now. [silence] …….

Capture all these reflections, hear our cries for help and guidance. Only you know the sense we mean and our deepest need.

Bless and hold in you care the precious life of the [ N]  one we welcome into the family of God this morning, and those who love and care.   Help us  in these days of stress, with so much evil intent, suffering and depravation  to be more aware, caring and sharing;  more generous in our loving, giving and serving at home and across the world.

Comfort we pray  all those who  grieve and mourn. We give thanks for the lives of those we love and for a time, see no more. We remember  [n] who have recently died. We light a candle, because its  light reminds of the light of JESUS Christ, who has banished the darkness of death .  So grant us to  trust in his  promises, to guide and guard us  in complex, frightening and heartbreaking times.  Father move within us while we pray  and give us courage and  peace. 

Lay your guiding hand on our lives so that we will  practice what has been preached  here  today and we will live out  the  very things we have sung and prayed  this morning.

So we join these prayers  with  those of your people on earth and your saints in heaven, as we repeat  words that Jesus taught  us. 

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, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.