National Day of Prayer
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On the National Day of Prayer, May 2, 2002, we concluded our prayer
service with a prayer specifically about family life. Here is the prayer
presented by Jim Herron, our Associate Minister of Family Life.
Dear Heavenly Father,
As we continue our prayer today, we borrow the words of the Apostle Paul and pray to you as the "Father from whom your whole family in heaven and on earth derive its name." We come to you on behalf of our beloved nation, praying for guidance, strength, wisdom, and healing. You are our refuge and strength, an ever present help in our trouble.
In addition to all that we have already brought to your throne of grace today Father, we now acknowledge that for our nation to be healed, the homes and families of our communities need to be restored. We have learned through the ages that according to your holy design the home is the basic element of all society. As the home goes, so goes the nation. Thus as we have allowed the home and family life to deteriorate in our land, so has our nation suffered, and has often lost its way. As we have allowed marriage to be dishonored, parenthood to be abandoned, respect for the aged to be discarded, and the significance and sacredness of human life to be devalued, we have all suffered and become misguided as a people. Today, we humbly confess our failings as a nation and seek your forgiveness. Please heal our land by healing our homes. Please secure our future as a great nation by securing the love and commitment of our marriages and families.
And so Father, we pray for the families of this community. We pray for all the parents and grandparents, that their loving influence will guide the next generations in returning to being a nation of character, a nation that trusts in you. We pray for the families of this community that are dealing with the painful grief of death, divorce, and disease, or the destructive forces of violence or indifference. We pray for the marriages of our community, that husbands and wives will reach out to each other and reach up to you. Bind their hearts together, Oh Father, and blend their spirits together so once again marriage in our society will become the haven for hearts and lives. We pray Father, that you will turn the hearts of all fathers toward their children, and the hearts of children toward their parents, and all of our hearts toward our homes. Father, please be the refuge and strength for our homes and families. We pray for healing, restoration, renewal, and a greater respect among all of us for that which you have ordained-- marriage, parenthood, and family life.
As we pray for families, Lord, we mention specifically the families and loved ones of those whose lives ended on September 11, when our nation's war on terrorism began, and the families of those who have now given their lives in this war. Father, bless them with your comfort, embrace them in your peace, reassure them in your grace, empower them in your love, bind up their wounds and heal their broken heartedness, Oh Father, please we pray.
Holy Father, we now end this special time of prayer but help us not to end our prayerfulness. We now commit all of these thoughts and petitions to your throne of grace, but help us also to commit ourselves to faithful trust in you. You are indeed our refuge and strength, an ever present help in our time of trouble. Once again we borrow the words of your Apostle Paul and end this prayer service as he ended his prayer in Ephesians chapter 3,
Now to you who are able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to your power that is at work within us, to you be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. |
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