Nehemiah prays

In light of all that is going on around us, would you lend your voice in prayer today, following in the footsteps of Nehemiah?

Oh sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, the great and awesome God, who loves relentlessly and sacrificially. Faithful and dependable are you. We love you because you have first loved us.

Please, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayers of your servants, prayers that are offered before you day and night on behalf of the peoples that you have made in your own image and after your own likeness. We are your people living in the world you created, and we come to you because you have promised to hear us when we earnestly seek your face; our souls thirst and long for you as a dry and parched land longs for rain.

We confess our sins to you. We have strayed away from your ways and order; we have rejected your truth and instead allowed falsehood, animosity, selfishness and hatred to fester. We have acted in unkind ways towards you and towards one another, and we have not been responsible enough to look after the world. We have neglected the poor and the needy as we have allowed our love of pleasure in me-centeredness to shape us. We are truly sorry as our sins are many, but your mercy is more.

Our paralysis seems not to be disconnected from our sins and disobedience, but we are convinced of your flood of mercy and forgiveness that you have promised to the penitent. We look to the cross of your Son where mercy and justice kiss, please relent and turn away from your wrath. Please cleanse our dirty feet and cure the leprosy of our hearts. Please clean our slate and dump our past, present and future sins into the sea of forgetfulness.

We now beg you to command your blessings upon your world at this dark hour. We, your people, whom you redeemed by your strength and your mighty hand, cry to you on behalf of your creation, may the flood of healing and restoration flow into the lives of both young and old, male and female. Cause your generosity and goodness to abound, reaching to the four corners of the earth; let light overcome darkness; let truth outwit lies; let salvation come to us all. And through it all, please make us ready to meet Your Son when he returns to bring the fullness of his kingdom. In the meantime, please let us enjoy a foretaste of the blessings of that perfect kingdom, in spite our fragility.Lord, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your people who delight in revering your name and give us success.

Amen.