Prayer & Praise
We have known forever that you call to obedience, that our obedience to your purposes brings well-being, that our departure from you may bring trouble, that life proceeds on a tight calculus of expectation and requirement, that in your awesome rule there is rigor along with generosity.
We have set out to he your faithful people and then we fall into an unintended brokenness.
We know about alienation from you and loss; we know about shame before our neighbors and embarrassment in the family; we know about the will to hide and become invisible, and we are consumed by depths of remorse.
When we are able, we come out of hiding long enough to face you.
We know all the cadences of confession and repentance, and that we have no secrets not already known to you. We sense before you our deep dread of failure and our last shred of innocence gone. We ask forgiveness and wait, at times before your presence we wait a very long time as we know of your silence and absence in our bottomness. But we know more! We know of your unfailing love, your willing generosity, your readiness to remember our sin no more.
And so, after shame before neighbor, after embarrassment within family, after dread before you, we wait and then eventually you appear, you reach, you speak, you touch.
You give yourself to us without judgment-after after we have judged ourselves. You invite us to your presence, to the table of your feast, to your walk of companionship, to your mission of well-being. We take timid steps toward home and are welcomed.
Now, in this hour of free-fall, be your good self again, meet us not according to our flaw but according to your generous self-giving: Be our Christmas, and start the world again; Be our Easter, and draw us from death to new life; Be our Pentecost, and breathe on its to begin again; Be your full, generous self toward us; we will begin again in obedience, and as we can obey, we will begin again in wonder, love, and joy.
Walter Brueggemann. Prayers for a Privileged People (p. 116). Kindle Edition.
What a lovely, deeply touching prayer. Thank you for sharing it
For my life, after almost two decades of ‘drought’, I am reservedly giving thanks to God for what appears to be ‘blades of grass’ of restoration sprouting…. While I live mostly in ‘fear’ of more loss and crushing, I am cautiously allowing hope to enter my heart. Thank You God.
Remember in prayer
Erunner- mom has blocked arteries
Michael- upcoming surgery, tumor on his thyroid and spot on his lung, very ill,
Nene- dad passed away
Lennea- sister salvation and cancer
filbertz – nephew’s 16-year-old son who evidently accidentally shot himself new year’s eve, still in pain over drew’s death.
JD – young step nephew shot himself in the head the day after Christmas 2016.
Linnea – Dannie, hit a tree and is in the hospital, requiring multiple surgeries to put pins in to repair broken bones – she was in a 6 hour surgery this morning to fuse several vertebrae. They took x rays during the surgery because she has also a punctured lung and they were monitoring that the lung didn’t collapse. The surgery to put a plate in her arm will be in the next few days. If you would, could you continue to pray for her and her family? Thank you so much…
London-mom recovering fr spinal surgery and pulmonary embolism
Mk- mom has passed away
Erunner- wife RA and platelets out of control
Paige- 4 boys to be pleasing to God
Captain kevin – new direction for he and hit wife, work load, health
Dan -new direction for he and wife
E munro- sadness,concern and confusion over major changes at cccm and seemingly lack of concern on pastors part
UnCCed- still hurting over treatment from her church
Cc boise
Bart
Tam nal
J keller
S miller
Oh no
Alice
Believer in boise
Duel citizen
Sad news
Luisa- hurt by church
the least of these-hurt by church
Disillusioned-hurt by church
the list gets longer and longer
“You give yourself to us without judgment-after after we have judged ourselves. You invite us to your presence, to the table of your feast, to your walk of companionship, to your mission of well-being. We take timid steps toward home and are welcomed. ”
thank you michael for this prayer thread.
Amen, Dusty@4….thank you for the prayer thread. Praying the list and asking God’s comfort for all…
Thanks for this prayer…… it reaches me where I need it right now.
I think others may have shared this song here before, but I shall do it again. It sums up this prayer well, and has been a source of strength. Hopefully it will bless you all as well.
“the list gets longer and longer” … yes, it does because dusty is caring and faithful
do we realize it is our privilege to lift all these up to the throne of the God of grace and mercy? i sometimes forget …
It is a privilege to be praying over this list. It is sad that there are so many major requests.
Father, where do we begin? There are horific things on this list that brings me to tears. Filbertz, jd, mk nene who have all lost people close to them. Michael, reunners mom,londons mom , dannie, who are all in need of great medical attention. All those affected by bad things at church….please hear our pleas for mercy . Our cry for help.
Thoes in need of saving grace, Lord we ask that they see Your love for them .True love
I wanted to give you an update on Dannie. Her 6 hour surgery today fused 2 vertebrae and stabilized her broken pelvis. She also has a perforated lung, but they think that will heal without intervention. Tomorrow she has another 5-6 hour surgery to put plates in her arm–her elbow is dislocated and shattered. Please pray that tomorrow’s surgery goes well and that her family can get through this. Her father died a few years ago, there are 5 kids in the family, and her Mom is shouldering all of this, emotionally and financially.
Praying for dannie and her family. Thanks for keeping us updated linnea. Praying for you and your family as well. (((((Hugs)))))
Prayers for Dannie.
And, for us all.
Thank you dusty and David H…
Hugs to you, too, dusty!
Joining in prayer for Dannie – and her mom – today, and in the days to come.
Thank you, mk…
Keeping you and your family in my prayers…
Linnea, any updares on dannie? Still praying
Linnea, any updates on dannie? Still praying
joining in the prayers here, too, dusty… that poor girl and her mom, too… mom’s hurt deeply when their child hurts and so much on her shoulders… i pray she trusts God to carry her
God carried me today – i praise and thank Him… again… i am so dependent on His grace, it must tire Him
Praying with and for you em
Lots to pray about here. ..
Thank you, Linnea. 🙂
My prayers continue for our PP community – for God’s peace to sustain us through the trials.
Dannie and her mom have a long road ahead. Praying each day Dannie is making steady improvement towards a full recovery and her mom is getting proper rest and nutrition to be strong for her daughter.
yes there is Dread,,,yes there is.
Praying again today for the list, paige, erunner, linnea, london, capt kevin, dan, michael, mk, nene, jd, filbertz….praying for you my friends.
thank you for your prayer, dusty … thank you for keeping this list alive … praying with
Linnea still praying for dannie
Thank you, dusty.
An update on Dannie– they put a plate in her arm with 10 screws on Tuesday, which went well. She did require a blood transfusion later that evening. Yesterday she received her back brace, which will be her constant companion for at least 3 months. She was to start driver’s ed. on Wednesday, but that has been postponed for at least a year. In a teenager’s mind, that’s almost worse than the physical suffering.
Would you continue to pray for her and her family? For healing, for resisting dependency on very strong painkillers, for the financial difficulties? I so appreciate your prayers.
praying
My prayers continue, Linnea.