We who have been caught by God believe that God reaches out to us prior to our reaching out to God. When we worship God, we thank Him for His firm grasp on us, by which we are enabled to move through life with a calm commitment which sustains us, even when life adversely assails us. But we also recognize that not all people see themselves as having been found by God, many of whom believe there is no God. But we believe what we believe, and therefore, let us, with confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
O Lord, our God, how can we dare to approach Thee, who art surely the most majestic of realities in the whole creation? How can we, who are so far beneath Thee as to be as atoms or molecules or insects to ourselves, deign to come to Thee in prayer? We openly recognize our enormous limitations compared to what we presume is Thy essence, and we acknowledge that we are not worthy even to try comprehend Thee. Yet Thou hast moved us to come to Thee, and by Thy spirit within us do we gather in Thy name. Hear us and stoop to answer our prayers, O God. In so doing, may we become ever more convinced of Thy goodness and committed to Thy ways.
On this day we pray especially for the people of the Bahamas who have been devastated by a hurricane that threatened us but ended up affecting us very little. We confess that though we have vague understandings of why hurricanes move where they do and why they do what they do, we do not understand why we should have been spared and people living on a nation of nothing but low-lying islands should have received such a fierce pounding. Nonetheless we pray for the Bahamians who have lost their homes and businesses, and especially for those who have lost family members . Uphold them in their grief and feelings of powerlessness. Somehow, in the destruction they see all around them, may they also see the power of Thy presence in ways which never before could be conceived by them, through helping hands extended from many people all over their nearest neighboring nation. Help us, who were spared the wrath of the same hurricane that mercilessly rolled over them, sense a kinship with these people in their shock, disbelief, needs, and hopes. Grant us eyes and hearts to perceive the cries of others, even as Thou hearest the cries of all Thy children.
We pray also for all those whose faith in Thee is tested by other kinds of adversity: sickness, sorrow, pain, loneliness, rootlessness, or hopelessness. We pray for those who have lost family members: to death, to distance, to behavior which inevitably separates and divides, to choices which create chasms to previously cherished relationships. Heal the hurting, uphold the sick, grant peace to the broken of heart or spirit. We pray these things in the name of the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now we pray together as he taught his disciples, saying, Our Father….