SELECTED PRAYERS FROM NOVEMBER 2024 INTERCESSION PAPER
Evergrown
None of your cleanliness-is-next-to-godliness for my God.
The one who strews the forest floor
With dead leaves and twigs like pick-up sticks?
Who scatters pinecones like popcorn at the ballpark?
Mine is a God who makes a mess and leaves it there.
Seeing beauty, God declares it good.
But look beneath the rot, see in decay
Green fungus in the shape of snowflakes,
Mold in shiny penny shades of brown.
New life joins to make community
In my Creator’s pig-sty paradise.
I ask my God who fancies disarray
To form a noble forest from my twig-snapped actions,
My choked and crowded thoughts, my rambling prayers,
Viewing, then, the vista of this new creation
As a merging of the Maker and the made.
—Eileen Harakal, SCHC
Monday:
Gracious God,
Help me to remember that in You, all things are possible. If left to my own devices and desires, all “things” are a distraction from, if not an impediment to, my unadorned relationship with the Divine.
—Joan Osborn, SCHC
Tuesday:
God of all, we know that you made us in your own image. Open our hearts and minds to carry that knowledge with us as we meet people, acknowledging that each one is a child of yours and worthy of our love and care.
—Pat Cole, SCHC
Wednesday:
O God, we have studied your laws, and your ways of compassion and generosity. We have seen your children in need among us, and we have grieved for their suffering. Now, O God, embolden us to act. Send your Holy Spirit of faith and courage, so that no fears and no sense of inadequacy hold us back. Fill us with your reckless love that we might step forward now to further your beloved community.
—Andrea Briggs, SCHC
Thursday:
Loving, Holy One, we thank you for your love that extends to each and all of us, even to those we may find difficult to love. In seasons of division and conflict, or simple anxiety, give us grace to trust our own belovedness in your sight. Let the confidence of your loving presence in our lives bless those communities where we dwell—our families, churches, neighborhoods, and nation, and especially those in our society who most need assurance that their lives and their thriving matter. Strengthen us to be agents of your peace and repairers of the breach. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who calls us to love one another as we have been loved. —Kathy Staudt, SCHC
Friday:
Holy One, I want to follow in the way of your cross and need your help to do so. I commit that I will keep my ears attuned to hearing your Word, my mouth to speak only kindness, my eyes to always see the beauty of Your creation, and to open my heart to following You daily. Please bless me that I may live to this commitment.
—Kathie Wilbert, SCHC
Saturday:
Loving God, creator of all that is, help us be ever mindful of our siblings, especially our siblings who have no home due to war, poverty or health. These siblings all too often are without food as well as shelter. Keep them in our prayers and show us ways we may work to overcome the causes of homelessness and hunger. In the name of Jesus, who fed all kinds of people in many ways.
—Betty Lane, SCHC
