Prayers 5 17 2015
*Welcome! Hope the Bay to Breakers event did not affect your coming to church
*Regional Affiliation Forum that took place prior to the service was the fourth one before a called Membership Meeting on May 31st, two weeks from today at 1:00; If you have further thoughts or questions about this, please make those known to the Deacons; pray for the discussion and where God may be leading us
*Thanks to Jimmy Yee, Dick and Anna Wong, Alan Fong and others who led this year’s Senior Center; taking a break for the summer and will resume in the fall
*Pastor’s Retirement Luncheon; register now
Prayer Concerns
*Jimmy Chan continue to make progress in his rehabilitation
Prayer of God’s People
On this day, Lord as you created and given it to us to praise you and to be praised, we are thankful to be your community of disciples. Lead us as a community of faithful servants to be your faces of Good News to all whom we meet—at home where loved ones who have yet to believe, to coworkers who may worship the idols of success, and to our neighbors who live without much purpose except the struggle to survive each day. Teach us that every one of us has an important mission to be the hands and feet of our Lord.
We pray for loved ones close to our hearts who are sick and broken. In your hands, Lord, we trust you with our lives and if it is according to your plan that healing and recovery take place, we seek that outcome for we continue to pray for health and wellbeing. Continue to bless Jimmy Chan to make gains in his rehab therapy. Bless the many who are known in our hearts who are in need of grace and mercy. Grant them comfort and encouragement of a new day.
Lord, settle us down as we come to you in prayer. We confess that we are so prone to plan our responses that we don’t really listen—to you or to each other. We acknowledge that we are quick to speak, and slow to seek forgiveness for what we have said. We admit we are hasty in our actions, and reluctant to confess the error of our ways. We confess we are quick to judge, and lack the courage to hear the whole story when we have judged wrongly. Turn us around, O God. Grant us the grace to listen with love, to thank with compassion, to pause and consider, to be a person others turn to instead of away from because of Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray, saying…”Our Father…”
Benediction
You have been chosen as disciples and apostles.
Your task is to learn and proclaim God’s Word.
Let us conduct “church business” as God’s holy work.
May the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Amen.