A prayer of hope:
Our Father in heaven!
We anticipate the day that we will
be with you in heaven, yet
we live in expectation that somehow now, today,
we will be in your presence,
we will live within your protection,
we will experience your joy.
May your Name be kept holy.
We trust that you will cleanse our lips
as we dare to speak your Name;
we hope to echo your Word so that
we might properly speak of your person;
we desire to live holy lives so that our story
might not defame your holy name
but lift it up to glory.
May your Kingdom come,
This is our expectation of liberation.
Yet we would be free from our sin today,
And we would help free our neighbors
As we have been freed ourselves.
We trust that your will might be done on earth,
just as it moves forward among your holy ones in heaven.
May we seek to enact your wisdom so that
glimpses of your community, your holy people,
might give hope to a world awaiting us
in eager expectation.
Give us the food we need today –
and since more than enough comes our way,
help our trust in your providence empower
our practice of sharing, not just our food,
but our story and our table.
Forgive us what we have done wrong,
but more than that, transform us
into people who bear your true image.
Shape the mind of Christ in us so that
we might practice the virtue of grace.
Thus, we too, will have forgiven those who have wronged us,
and find ourselves free from resentment’s burden
And cynicism’s caustic hardness.
And do not lead us into hard testing,
Yet if we must travel through your wilderness,
Fix our eyes on the signs of your presence, day and night,
In order that we might faithfully follow your path.
But keep us safe from the Evil One
So that we might not be persuaded to see the word
Or the world as he would have us see them.
For kingship, power and glory are yours forever,
And these are the fullness of our hope.
Amen.
Blessings,
Ron
From CJB, Matthew 6:9-12
