We Wait for You, Lord

God of hope,
you promise peace and joy and unfailing love.

We wait for you, Lord,
our souls wait
with deep yearning
for you to act
to bring hope to lives
that are caught in despair,
to make peace in cities
wounded by so much violence,
to move us toward joy and love.

You are more patient with us
than we are with you, Lord.
You work in our hearts
and our minds
and our spirits,
changing us in deep places
so we become the place
where your hope and peace and joy and love
can come to birth.

Give us grace
to slow down enough
to pay attention
to the work you are doing in us
and among us.

Give us grace
to face the hard truths
that make a way
for your transforming power
and healing presence.

Give us grace
to yield to you.

We pray in the name of Jesus
who has set us on this Way of Life.

Amen.

 

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We have staked our lives on you

A prayer based on Psalm 27

Light-giving, salvation-making God,
we have staked our living and our dying
and our being raised to new life
on your steadfast love and faithfulness.

You have promised
to hide us in your shelter in the day of trouble.
You have promised to set us high on a rock,
above those powers and forces
that batter us,
that tempt us,
that work against us.

We have sought your presence here,
listening for your Word:
your Word that gives life;
your Word that heals the wounded heart;
your Word that speaks truth.

Teach us your Way, O Lord Jesus.
Lead us on a well-lighted path.
In the times when you are silent,
grant us the courage to wait,
trusting in your grace that brings your resurrection power
to our dead ends.

You are doing a ‘new thing’ among us.
though, it is hard to see at times what that ‘new thing’ is.
We bring to you our grieving over what is being lost,
our fears about what the future might hold,
our desire to love and serve you.

By the power of your Holy Spirit,
you are refining us,
purifying our discipleship,
pulling us into following Jesus
In this new world.

Grant us mercy and grace
to trust you more deeply,
for the only secure place is with you,
our light and our salvation,
the stronghold of our life.

We pray all these things in the name of Jesus,
the first-born of your new creation
our hope, our life.

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Waiting for God to Speak

God,
the psalmist says that
you are our refuge and our strength,
a very present help
in our troubles.

We thank you for those times
when that truth has sustained us,
given us the courage and hope
we have needed to go on.

We bring to you now
those times when we have
waited in silence
for you to speak,
to give some sign
that you have heard our prayers.

We bring to you our worry
and our yearning,
our loneliness
and our searching.

We wait,
with spirits open and alert,
ready to be touched by Your Spirit
and to be drawn more deeply into your love.

This waiting also is our prayer,
in Christ’s name. Amen.

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Your surprising future

Holy God,
Word of truth,
Renewing Spirit:
You journey with us on our way,
moving us toward your new creation.
But, we are an impatient people,
not certain we can trust you
when you take us
in directions that are not of our choosing.

There are days when we are more certain of our fears
than we are of your redeeming power.
There are long stretches of time when we see more clearly
the impossibilities ahead of us
than the ways you are shaping newness in our midst.

We follow our fears.
We stagger to a stop before the impossibilities.
We resist your healing power
when it takes us down unfamiliar paths.

We know about management and control and making plans.
Yet, here, in this time,
you have opened the gates into your holy presence.
Immerse us so deeply in your unfailing love,
that we dare to risk submitting our lives
to your surprising future.
You are our only hope. Amen.

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In our waiting

A prayer based on Psalm 5

Through the abundance of your steadfast love,
we have come into your presence, O God.
Here, we lay our lives before you
waiting
waiting for your direction
waiting for your Holy Spirit
to descend
bringing the fire of your purposes
your energy
to light the way before us.

We’re not good at this waiting, patient Saviour.
We are not good at letting you form us
in the deep places of our souls.
There’s too much fear there,
too much pain.

Yet, you do not give up on us.
You have promised that your love is deeper
than our fear.
You have promised that your truth
will set us free.
So, met us in our waiting and in our impatience.
Meet us in our fear and in our trust.
Hear our cry for help beneath our many words
and leads us in the paths that lead to your glory.
We pray in the name of Jesus,
your Word,
your Truth,
our Hope. Amen.

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A prayer for Mission Sunday

A prayer based on Isaiah 42

Justice-bringing God,
Isaiah told us that far-flung ocean islands
wait expectantly for the teaching of your servant.
We wait expectantly too.

Teach us, Spirit-bathed Son of God:
teach us to hear you
though your voice is so easily drowned out
by the roar of nations at war,
by the babel of twenty-four hour news,
by the confusion in our own minds.

Teach us by your attention
to those who are bruised and hurt;
to those who are small and insignificant.

Teach us by your perseverance and steadfast commitment
to the truth of God,
no matter what the cost.

Teach us, Word of God
who has called us into God’s mission.
Teach us what we need to learn
in the cries of the poor in our city;
in the longings and hopes of your children
in distant nations;
in the words of those who speak truth in dangerous places.

We thank you for those who serve you
with deeds and words of justice and hope.
This morning, we thank you especially for the work
that Mary has done in your name among the people of Japan and Korea.

As we share a meal together
and as we hear more about her work,
open our ears to hear what you hear,
open our eyes to see what you see,
open our hearts to break at the the things that are breaking your heart.

Then, show us what work you have given us to do,
in this time,
in this place,
in the company of these people
who are called by your name.
And showing it to us,
bathe us also with your Spirit,
that we may love in the way that you love us,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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A God of Deep Hiddenness

A prayer on reading Revelation 5

We sing glad praise to you, O God,
for you have touched our lives in life-giving ways,
and we are grateful.
But, in truth,
we must also confess that there are times when you are
the God of deep hiddenness.
There are times when we can scarcely hear your voice.
There are times when you are not easy to trust.
We offer ourselves to you,
asking you to strengthen us for the work you give
and to renew our vision of your truth.
God, holy sovereign, faithful, gracious,
grant us these gifts —
to wait for you in your silence,
to trust you in your hiddenness,
to answer your call, even when it surprises us.
Then, our life together shall become a sign of your
Life and your Light for all people.
All blessing and honour and glory and praise are yours,
O Lord most high.

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I choose praise

A prayer based on Psalm 50

“Spread for me a banquet of praise,
serve High God a feast of kept promises
And call for help when you’re in trouble
I’ll help you and you’ll honour me.
….It’s the praising life that honours me.
As soon as you set your foot on the Way,
I’ll show you my salvation.” (The Message)

I lean into your promises:
for help when I call,
for signs of your salvation on the Way.
I choose praise:
praise that you are not ultimately mocked,
praise for your steadfast love
holding me
when the darkness
made by liars
blinds my way,
praise that your quiet patience
moves steadily towards
the moment of judgment,
praise for your salvation
being worked into my life
even in suffering.

I choose praise,
promise-keeping God,
God who honours truth
God of the Way
that leads to salvation
God who will blaze into view.

I choose praise
and wait.

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You’ve promised

A prayer based on Psalm 69

“Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck”
“My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God”

This weary waiting
has grown familiar
a companion too constant

set me free
from ‘no pity’
‘no comforters’
‘poison for food’
shame, dishonour

“let your salvation, O God, protect me.
Do not let the flood sweep over me.”

I hold back
I dare not go where the anger waits
the tears
the questions, “Why?”
I try to reason it out
to hold on to the mystery of God’s timing
to promises that ‘they’ will not prevail
But the doubts linger
grow strong

I grasp at the small signs
new energy among the few
a note of encouragement and gratitude
life-lines
tossed by friends
by You

When will it be your time, O God?
your ‘acceptable time’?
Steadfast Love, Abundant Mercy
make haste
make haste to answer.

Bring joy
You have promised
You promised.

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A Prayer while Waiting

A prayer based on Psalm 135

“Praise the Lord!”
I hear the summons
“Give praise, O servants of the Lord”
Fill my mind
my soul
with praise
“You that stand in the house of the Lord
in the courts of the house of our God”
Turn me, inch by inch,
toward the Lord
not toward other powers
that seem so strong.
This place belongs to God.
Remember.
Not to us.
Remember.
“Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good”
Pull me into this goodness
Soak me in it
Immerse me deep
Christ’s goodness all around me.
“Sing to his name, for he is gracious”
rescuing when there is no hope
defeating evil
giving an heritage of plenty
You have done it before.
Hold me in your promises.
Remove from me
all that blocks your purposes for me.

“You name, O Lord, endures forever,
your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages.
For the Lord will vindicate his people
and have compassion on his servants.”
Hold on.
Hold on.
You who speaks
and sees
and hears
and brings the wind from Your storehouses
Breathe!!
or we shall not live.
“You that fear the Lord, bless the Lord!”
We wait.
Praise the Lord.

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