A Pastoral Prayer
God of all life, we thank you for the privilege of coming to you in prayer today. We are grateful that you came to earth to live among us and to die for us. In your great acts of love, you have given us an example of generosity. Help us to experience the joy of giving ourselves fully in your service. Take away from us the fear that if we give away what we have, we will have less. Help us to know the truth that if we seek to save our lives, we will lose them. But if we lose our lives for the sake of the gospel, we truly find them.
We ask that you cleanse our hearts… of every desire to enter into the violence that surrounds us. Save us from becoming the evil we hate. Keep us from participating in the activities that bring pain to those with whom we disagree. Breathe your loving Spirit into our yearning and troubled hearts so that we may become examples of your love for the people around us.
Colossians 3:15 #transformingmission #faith #christian #jesus #colossians">We know that out of your loving-kindness you have given us what we need to overcome all the obstacles we have placed in front of you. We confess that we seek to protect ourselves from your goodness. You make us uncomfortable. So we seek to hide from you and all that is good. Today, we ask for your perfect love to cast out all our fear. We desire to completely trust you in loving and caring for family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, strangers, and enemies.
By your grace, give us the obedience to yield a little more of ourselves today. Put each of us where you want us and let us be content. When we can’t be content, make us faithful. Let us be a part of what you are blessing. And let us learn everything we need to learn in every situation and circumstance. Break our hearts for the church and the church’s heart for the community and the world. Help us love the people who no one else wants. Let us see you in the tasks you have given us to perform. We pray that you will find us faithfully performing those tasks. Fill us with your grace and glory so all whom we come in contact with will experience your grace and glory in us.
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.¹
We are no longer our own, but yours. Put us to what you will, rank us with whom you will. Put us to doing, put us to suffering. Let us be employed by you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low by you. Let us be full, let us be empty. Let us have all things, let us have nothing. We freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are ours, and we are yours. So be it. And the covenant which we have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.²
We offer ourselves to you in the name of Jesus. Amen
- Adapted from the Prayer of St. Francis
- Adapted from the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer
