Our prayer time this week will focus on two pressing concerns. I am convinced that we need to pray for God’s healing both for this corona virus and for the disease of racism. Both diseases have the potential to spread and to cause fear and pain and death. Sadly, we have been reminded again that the disease of racism is active and continues to affect and infect people everywhere. It, like the corona virus, gains momentum when people do not take it seriously. These last several weeks, we have become extremely familiar with actions to take to stop the spread of the corona virus. We have come to understand that hand washing is essential. There has been widespread willingness to follow the instructions carefully and to take action to ensure that we are safe and that people around us are safe from the corona virus. What actions are essential to stop the spread of racism? When we pray, will we be willing to also take action to confront racism and to work to ensure that everyone can be safe? One of the actions to take to confront the disease of racism and to ensure that everyone can be safe is the pursuit of justice for all. Scripture urges, “What does the Lord require of you but this: to act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with Your God” Micah 6:8
Today at 1 pm, I invite all of us to join together to pray for God to be at work to see healing for this corona virus and all its’ effects. We will also pray for the justice, mercy, and humility needed to heal racism and its’ ugly symptoms.
Praying God’s Love and Peace for our troubled world, Pastor Lola
Here is our prayer:
Our God, we recognize You as a God of justice and mercy and we come to You now in humility. We thank you for Your love for all people. We thank You that You do not discriminate and You look on each person with love and tenderness. We know that our world is in upheaval and we need Your healing power. We pray now for the migrant agricultural workers on nearby farms who have tested positive for Covid. We pray for them in their vulnerability. We think of them being far away from their families. We know that they must be afraid and their families back home will be afraid too. We pray for the medical treatment they will need. We ask for their healing and recovery. We pray for measures to be implemented to bring the virus under control on these farms. We pray for those who will be anxious if they cannot work to provide for themselves and their families. We pray against attitudes that will blame or mistrust people from away. We pray together now for the ongoing challenge of bringing the corona virus under control. We pray for people who are returning to work and feel unsafe and distressed. We pray for people who have not yet been able to return to work and feel frustrated and uncertain. We pray for those who do not know what they will do now or in the future. We are praying that you will hasten the discovery of an effective vaccine. We pray for healing in every way that healing is needed: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. And then our God, we turn our thoughts to the healing needed for this disease of racism. We pray that You will touch, with Your healing, the wounds that people bear because of racism. We pray that you will forgive us for times when we have “passed by on the other side” and have not moved to seek justice. We pray that you will heal and restore all of us because we are all affected by racism. Move us to see each person as You see us, made in Your image and precious in Your sight. Our prayers center now for those in the States who are protesting and demanding justice. We pray along with them for justice. We pray that this will be a time when things will not just settle down and go back to the unfair patterns that were. Our God build a new reality for our world in and through us. Heal us and heal our world to be the people that You created us to be. We want to respond to what You require of us: to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with You, our God. Spirit of the Living God fall fresh on us. We thank You for Your power to heal our diseases, in the name of Jesus, AMEN.