We worship God, not because we first seek Him, but because He first seeks us. He makes His appeal to us by many means: through parents who raised us in the context of faith; through relatives and teachers and friends in our youth; through writings and books of the people of faith down through many centuries; and through the Bible, which reaches out to us across time into its unique and inviting environment. In worship we become connected to one another. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
How can we not pause to give Thee thanks and praise, O God? Thou hast made the world and everything in it, including us. We marvel at the measure of Thy creative purposes, and how everything in nature seems to fit together. We praise Thee for creating all the peoples of the world, all of whom are ultimately our sisters and brothers. Help us to care for another as Thou dost care for us. Give us a deeper appreciation for the unique nature of every person around us, and teach us how better to be a brother or sister to all of them. Keep us in community with one another, O God, for it is so easy for us to cut ourselves off from each other.
We ask Thy forgiveness for the ways in which we have failed one another, particularly when we deliberately refrained from helping those in need. We pray for people who are either unable or unwilling to help themselves, and who therefore depend entirely on others if their needs are to be met at all. Bless those who care for the hard to serve: for addicts of various kinds, for the constantly self-indulgent, for the severely broken of body or mind, for those who rely primarily on the assistance of others. Loving Father, may the most authentic humanity in each of us touch the lives of as many as possible, so that the world will be better off because all of us are here.
We pray for people who currently are going through the most difficult crises of their lives, because of illness or loss or misfortune or bad decisions. Many of them shall cry out to Thee for help, but many will not. Pour out Thy grace on people who may not deserve it, but whose lives can be immeasurably improved and healed by it nonetheless. Keep us who seek to serve Thee from supposing that Thy grace is only reserved for people like us. Enable us to live in the anticipation of and the reflection of grace, Thy amazing grace. We ask it all in the name of Jesus, through whom we believe that grace has been the most clearly offered. Now we pray as he taught us, saying, Our Father….