LIVES MATTER

O God, help us!

This I know is true:  Lives matter! I pray it to you because to say it aloud seems to draw critics, angry words, troubles and hurts. And yet I pray to you, because it is true and you have said it is true, lives matter indeed.

Yet I live in a culture that applauds the success of one individual over another. Forgive me O God and forgive us for our willingness to succeed while others struggle, fail, and lose heart.

I live in a culture that offers me pleasures that take no thought for the lack of the other. Forgive me O God and forgive us for our selfish pleasuring while plundering the blessings You’ve given for a grander purpose, a noble life of sharing with those who have not.

I live in a culture that gives awards to the fastest, the brightest, the strongest, the skin deep attractive and calls me to keep the charade of it all. Forgive me O God and forgive us for neglecting the slower, ignoring the simple, sidelining the weak, and never acknowledging those whose beauty clearly can be seen from the inside out.

I live in a culture that values power, control, maintaining the status quo and forsaking real and meaningful change in heart, mind and action. Forgive me O God and forgive us for joining with those who resist the ways of your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

O God, help us! Help me!

For those who say, “I have come to know God,” but do not obey his commandments are liars; those who abide in Jesus must walk just as he walked (1 John 2:4-6).

For the love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of richest comes not from the Father but from the world ( 1 John 2:16-17).

For how does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help (1 John 3:17)?

For those who say, “I love God,” yet hate their brothers or sisters are liars; those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters (1 John 5:20-21).

O God, help us, teach us, change us, empower us, for Lives matter. Amen

 

 

 

A prayer of response to the preaching of the Gospel

Heavenly Father, hear our prayers as we respond to your Word today:

Grant that we might reach out to you in faith like the woman in the Gospel who reached for your garment to be healed.

Grant that we exercise our faith by offering our all like the boy who gave the fish and bread and the widow who gave her last coin.

Grant that we might get out of our comfort zones like Peter who got out of the boat and walked to you on the water.

Grant, Lord Jesus that we might not be like the Pharisees who rejected you and your ways and fought against you.

Grant that we might not hold on to other loves and idols in our lives like the rich young ruler did.

Grant that we might be like the disciples who waited on your Holy Spirit and experienced your peace and your power to serve your purposes.

Grant that we might be like all those who received you and those whom you lovingly and joyful call your children.

Grant that we might always live as those who respond positively to your grace and are being transformed to your likeness

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.