Thanksgiving of one sort is now behind us, and thanksgiving of another sort lies ahead of us. We are a people whose hearts and minds should be filled with thanks to God for gifts which never end, and especially for THE Gift, the gift of Jesus Christ. We gather in worship of a God whose kindness never fails, and whose beneficence is without end. Everything of value we have ultimately comes from God, and to Him we offer our praise and gratitude. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Payer
Praise be to Thee, O God, for giving each of us life, and for giving it in such wondrous abundance. We thank Thee for family and friends, for health and home, for faith and freedom. We thank Thee for being with us in every situation in our lives, in good times and bad, upholding us, encouraging us, leading us, and loving us. Teach us each day to express our gratitude to Thee by seeking to follow Thy will and Thy laws with increasing commitment, so that Thy world may become more and more Thy temporal kingdom.
We pray for everyone whose lives have been turned upside by the wars raging throughout the world. We pray especially for the hostages and the families of those taken hostage in Israel by Hamas. May Thy spirit work within the political and military leaders of all sides in all wars, that they may seek the cessation of hostilities and begin to build the difficult but essential frameworks of peace. Grant optimism to those who have lost it altogether, hope to those who still feel utterly hopeless, and strength to those who have been greatly depleted by the severity of the chaos around them. Be also with those who are brought low by other circumstances in their lives: the ill, the downtrodden, those who have been enslaved by heartless human traffickers, the unemployed, the under-employed, the physically or mentally disabled, and the socially isolated.
We thank Thee for whatever levels of faith are represented in each of us here today, and for the ways by which that faith sustains us in every situation we encounter. We recall times of trauma which enveloped us, and how faith inserted itself into that trauma, lifting us above the pain and sorrow we so keenly felt. We are reminded of times we wondered how we could ever get through something very difficult, but faith guided us past the obstacles, guiding us to safety and certainty. May faith continue to lead us through all the trials of our lives, until, at the last, it shall lead us into Thine eternal presence. These things we pray in the name of Jesus, our Lord and our Messiah. Now we join together in prayer as he taught his disciples, saying, Our Father….