FCCR-ACE Prayer Blog

Congregationalists Learning to Pray

Oh God,
A friend fears that her husband’s throat cancer is back, yet again.
He has been in great pain from the side effects of his last round of treatments.
They are desperate for a miracle.
Lay your healing touch upon them, I pray.
Provide comfort and hope where there is despiration.
Thank you for the blessings which they have already received.

Amen

In my work I was recently prompted to look up Psalm 34 — then did some reading and found the following:

In an article by Nancy deClaisse-Walford, she writes “…Psalm 34 is an alphabetic acrostic. Each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems were the works of highly skilled literary artists and functioned in ancient Israelite literature in a number of ways. Acrostics were most likely memory devices to aid in private and public—that is, individual and corporate—recitation; in addition, literarily, they summarized all that could be said or that needed to be said about a particular subject, summing it up from alif to tav, from A to Z. Adele Berlin suggests further that in an acrostic, the entire alphabet—the source of all words—is marshaled in praise of God. One cannot actually use all of the words in a language, but by using the alphabet one uses all potential words.”

The idea of the acrostic appealed to me — the concept of using the full range of the alphabet to praise God…so I wrote one for Psalm 34 myself. You may want to look up the original. This is my take, alphabetically :-)

Always I will give thanks to God.
Before all I will tell of God’s wonderful works.
Claim aloud with me, God’s greatness — let’s join our voices together.
Did I not pray and God delivered me from my fears?
Even the oppressed are glad for God’s action in their lives.
For all who are helpless who call on God, God answers.
Guardian angels protect those who honor God; God keeps them safe.
How good God is! Happy are those who find security with God.
Instill these truths in your children, and in your children’s children.
Jackals may go hungry for lack of sustenance, but those who turn to God lack nothing.
Listen my friends, and I will share with you the good news of God.
Maybe you are searching and would like to find a safe place with God.
Nothing will separate you from God, God listens — and hears — all.
Oppose — as does God — those who do evil things.
Prepare your hearts for righteousness.
Quiet your soul so you can hear God speaking to you.
Return to God if you have been discouraged — God does not give up on you, never will.
Suffering is a human event, not one that comes from God; but God is with you in your suffering.
Through all, God will preserve you.
Unique and beloved of God is who you are, every one of you.
Valley or mountaintop, no matter where you are, God will be with you.
Wicked people make their hell on earth — their day to day living is their punishment.
X or Y chromosome, God the Father, God the Mother, matters not. God parents us through all of life.
You are God’s, and will be saved and protected by God.
Zealously guard your relationship with God. “For God so loved the world…” — God is zealous for you…and you…and you…and you.

Dear God,

Thank you for this amazing day.
The autum colors are spectacular, the air is warm and breezy.
Joe walked the lake with me (truely amazing!)
Thank you for guiding our church to and through the call process for Lisa.
I pray for her and us as we learn to share a new journey together as your searching people.

Amen

Hi God,

It’s Columbus Day.
I’m not sure I want to think about that.
Without Columbus,
I might not be in such a blessed situation.
Without Columbus,
Native Americans might be in a more blessed situation.
Isn’t there some way
that we could order our lives
so that all peoples can be blessed?
Must we always arrange life’s situations
so as to create winners and losers?

So my prayer today
is that you help us get serious
about the business
of “loving our neighbors as ourselves.”
If we don’t want foreigners
coming here to tell us how to live,
perhaps we shouldn’t be going to their countries
to tell them how to live.
Sounds pretty simple,
but I fear we keep tripping up over the details.
Help us consider and foresee
the unintended consequences or our proposed actions.

Also, I pray that you have mercy on all our souls,
sinners though each of us persist in being.

Amen

Hi God,

So we’re to have a new pastor after all.
That’s nice … I guess.
Even changing from interim
to so-called settled
is still change.
and we don’t seem to do well with change,
even when it is appropriate and desired.

So my prayer today is that
we be able to greet Rev. Lisa with good grace
and embrace her without suspicion;
and that Rev. Lisa will be able to accept us with good grace,
And embrace us as we are, not as she wishes we were.
I also pray that together we grow into what you would have us be.

Finally, I pray that you have mercy on all our souls
sinners though we continue to be.

Amen