A Prayer for Our Distressed Times

I am posting this prayer I shared yesterday in our services at Eastbrook Church, as well as the introductory comments, since a few people asked me for copies of it. I hope it is an encouragement. Thanks to all those who helped edit this into its final form.

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All through this last week I have received heartfelt messages by people in our congregation regarding the lack of mention of Charlie Kirk ‘s death in our services last Sunday. In a typical Eastbrook manner, I’ve heard from congregants across the political spectrum. 

I appreciate understanding these diverse perspectives and want to pastor our church family with care. I must admit, it can be challenging to decide how directly to address current events in our services, even though there were indirect references in both my message and Wally Johnson’s prayer.  

Nevertheless, it’s clear that some within our church are feeling the trauma and distress of these times. Feelings of pain, confusion, and unrest that are stirring inside us, and we’re unsure how to handle them.  The cultural currents, especially on social media, intensify these feelings and push them toward a boiling point.

One thing I know we need in times like these is to communicate with one another and pray together. We need to reach out to God and find our center in God, rather than in our turmoil or circumstances. A good starting point is prayer, and I want to lead us in a prayer of lament, repentance, and intercession today. If you feel so led and as you are able, I invite you to join me on your knees as a sign of our deep dependence upon God and our humility. 

Let us pray.

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Dear God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we come to You broken and in need.

As Your followers, we lament the culture of death in which we live these days. We lament the death of Charlie Kirk. We lament those left to deal with the trauma in an ongoing way, particularly his wife and children.

We lament the pain of young people taking weapons into their hands with the express intent of killing other people. 

We lament the shootings at schools in Denver and Minneapolis in this past month, and more places before that.

We lament the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on a commuter train in Charlotte, NC.

We lament the ongoing pain, suffering, and death related to racial inequalities in our country.

We lament the suffering and death around our world, particularly in the conflict zones of Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Gaza, Congo and Sudan. 

Our lament over this culture of death could continue, Lord, as we think about deaths of the unborn, of starvation, of the elderly, and so much more. 

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Our God, we humbly repent of this culture of death. We admit that it is a problem in our broader culture, but that it is also a problem within us as Your people. Forgive us, God.

We repent of the anger in our hearts that makes its way out into our words and actions toward others. Forgive us, God.

We repent of letting the culture around us lead us more toward the acts of the flesh than toward the fruit of the Spirit. Forgive us, God.

We repent of not seeing others as people made in Your image and reflecting Your beautiful creativity nurtured within each human life since You formed us in the womb. Forgive us, God.

We repent as Your people of not reflecting as fully as we should the grace and truth revealed in Jesus Christ to a world that is both beautiful yet broken, magnificent yet malformed. Forgive us, God.

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Lord, we ask that You would mightily renew us as Your people that we might live as powerful witnesses to You in word and deed.

Lord, as Paul wrote, would you strengthen us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received, to be completely humble and gentle, to be patient and bear with one another in love, and to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3).

Lord, we ask that You would help us as a church made up of people from diverse viewpoints and backgrounds to stand together around You, who have made us One new humanity through Christ.

Lord, we ask that You would make us instruments of Your peace in a culture and world of violence and death. 

Lord, we ask that You would bring revival in our land, in our day and time, and let it even begin with us here at Eastbrook Church, as we humbly seek Your face in our need.

Lord, we ask that You would bring many to Christ in these days, from the least to the greatest, from the most humble to the most powerful. 

Lord, we ask that justice would roll down like a river, and righteous like an ever-flowing stream in our land (Amos 5:24).

Lord, we ask that You would restore us with an undivided heart that we might revere Your name, and that our lives would bear the fruits of Your presence each and every day.

Lord, we ask all this because we feel the weight of these days. 

Lord, we ask all this because we know that without You we can do nothing, but in You we can enjoy the wondrous gifts of Your faith, hope, and love.

Lord, we ask all this because we want to bring glory to Your great name here on earth, until the day we see You face to face in the new heaven and the new earth.

And we pray all this in the name of the Father,
and the name of the Son,
and the name of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.