A 'Thy Kingdom Come' Prayer For These Days

God of Grace and Mercy ... the world that you have placed into our care has been shattered by the sounds of gunshots, by the hearts of those who hate, by the sobs of the grieving and by the cries of the world. What has happened to us? Have you become a convenience to us, to be called upon only in times such as these? Have we forgotten the ways of your Love? 

Forgive us. O God, we cry out to you in ways that hardly seem like prayers. Embrace the families and friends of those who have died by the hands of another as well as those who were wounded by those same hands. Embrace also those who have been wounded by words. Pour out your healing and loving Spirit into their lives and into our world. Change our hearts and our words ... change us.

Now, as we sit in our silence and even in your moments of silence, our hearts weep with you, O God, and with all those whose lives have forever been changed by hate. We are gasping. Help us to breathe again. We pray for love and respect to overcome hate and disregard in this world. Move us to look the way of others. Draw us near to one another and even nearer to you. Open our hearts to listen to the stories of others. Open our eyes to see through your Love. Make us your agents of love and peace. We lift our lives and our world to you, God of Love, for we stumble and fall so often in our own efforts. We pray that your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

by Anna Murdock
Statesville (NC) UMC