November 30, 2023
Reflections – Prayer For a Hurting World
Prayer For a Hurting World
Lord, You have promised us your presence. So many around the world feel the need for that presence now – for comfort, for strength, for the provision of life-sustaining resources, for a new home.
Their energy is sapped. Their routines are disrupted by the horrors of the past and the dangers of an unknown future. Sometimes, the anxiety is too much. Sometimes, you must seem distant to them. Sometimes, they hurt in loneliness as well as in practical humanitarian terms.
Father, we pray that pain such as theirs will be healed. And we feel challenged to play a greater role in that healing. Help us discern how we fit into a world that is so much larger than our local community. Show us how we can “help this fallen world stand up again.”
So, Lord, we offer ourselves, our energies, the resources associated with more comfortable lives than many enjoy. Give new meaning this coming season to our singing of, “Joy to the world”. Make us instruments of your joy and hope and peace. Help us to be the kind of comforters the Apostle Paul wrote about in II Corinthians 1:3-4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we have received from God.”
Give us the courage to move more directly into this world of pain that we often see only on the evening news. Illuminate our eyes and inflame our hearts so that we might discern ways to be used in your service more effectively. Show us the opportunities that must surely be sitting right in front of us.
Thank you, Lord, for being with all your children around the world. Thank you for caring for refugees in earlier ages, refugees such as Mary and Joseph as they fled to Egypt, and refugees like the early Christians who were forced to disperse across the Roman Empire.
Thank you, Lord. Amen
Based on a prayer originally penned by Virgil Fry.
Blessings and peace,
Chaplain Allen
chaplain@nationsu.edu
chaplainscorner.org
Disclaimer statement: Please note that the opinions expressed herein are those of the Chaplain alone and are based on his personal understanding of scripture and how God works in our lives.
Read more Reflections: Chaplain’s Corner.