SELECTED PRAYERS FROM OCTOBER 2024 INTERCESSION PAPER
Cover prayer:
This day of my life
Be bound to the way
Of a throng
Who ceaselessly pray.
An up-woven life,
Bound by the thong
Of a saving thorn
To Love’s very Life
Who upborn of the Spirit,
With God
Is in song—
God’s Joy.
—Elizabeth Randall-Mills, SCHC (1961-1993)
Monday:
Creator God, just as we cannot comprehend your infinity, we cannot take in everything around us that clamors for our attention. Help us to focus on you and on what you would have us do. Give us clarity of thought that we may choose to free ourselves from unnecessary demands on our time and energy. Give us the joy of simplicity, the freedom of knowing that you, in your vastness, are all that we need.
—Alinda Stanley, SCHC
Tuesday:
Loving God, you have created your world with love and care. You have created your people, and all the earth’s creatures, to be diverse in color and kind, language and religious beliefs, and you have loved us all the same. You were a friend to the blind and lame, tax collectors and the poor, women and men. You loved the unnoticed, the undervalued, and the unwelcomed. Those are the neighbors you taught about. We pray that we can follow your example as we serve in the world. May we look into the eyes of those living on the margins and those struggling to feed their children and see you. May we be an example of unity of all your people to others.
—Ethel Wright, SCHC
Wednesday:
Dear Lord, as I begin each day, guide me to find the voice to support the universal rights of equal justice,
equal opportunity and equal dignity without discrimination. Inspire me to see my neighbor, whether next door or across the world, as family, either loving or disagreeing, yet always willing to listen. Help me to listen more than talk, encouraging my family to see each other as equals, and treat one another with compassion and grace.
—Elizabeth Blanchard, SCHC
Thursday:
O Holy One, who was and is the Word, give us the patience to examine our words before uttering them, not only to those around us, but the words we say to ourselves, so that we may have peace within as well as fostering peace and reconciliation with others. We ask in the name of your son who blessed the peacemakers and called them the children of God.
—Nola Sheffer, SCHC
Friday:
Lord Jesus, our teacher and guide, as this summer ended and autumn began with so many new beginnings in schools and church programs, bless all those who are starting new church school classes as teachers or students. Bless new Bible studies, and EfM groups throughout the church. May both teachers and pupils be blessed as they commit to teaching or learning more about you and your church and your world and our care of it.
—Louise Bower, SCHC
Saturday:
May God watch over all women who are marginalized by patriarchy. May the societies in which they live pass laws of protection—not limitation. In the name of Jesus.
—Jaclynne M. Laxon, SCHC
