At this time of year, when many in the U.S. gather with friends and family and take time to give thanks for their blessings. As those of us in the U.S. compare our standard of living with those around the world, we cannot but realize that we are blessed. And yet, when we take a careful inventory, we see many, even in our neighborhood who are hurting, hungry, and longing for community.
Please pray with me:
Lord God in Heaven,
You are the God who created the earth, the everlasting Father. You are comprehensive and complete. You are not bound by time; you have always been and You live equally in the past, present, and future.
You lack nothing; You have no needs. You revealed Yourself as Jehovah-Jireh, Yahweh-Yireh, the God who provides when Abraham needed a sacrifice, a substitute for his son, Isaac. And so many years later, You provided Your very own Son, Jesus Christ, as our substitute. We are humbled by our provision. We cannot grasp the cost of our sin. We cannot grasp the depth of Your love for us. We cannot fathom that Jesus, Your love for us brought You to die willingly and it was Your joy to take our sin upon Yourself. We love You and we come humbly before Your throne of grace.
We acknowledge that all good things come from You. We recognize that all our abilities have also come from You and You have even given us life itself. You give us freewill and the choice to use the very essence of who You made us to be for Your service. You call us to do so.
Forgive us when we have ignored those in need and passed them by without even uttering a prayer under our breath. Forgive us when we see and hear the news, when the needs of so many are directly in front of us, and we have not done what we could to help.
Truly You have given this nation so much, and we have not been diligent. We have not been scrupulous with the bounty that You have poured into our lives, individually and as a nation. Forgive us for not seeking You more diligently and using each circumstance of need as an opportunity to proclaim Christ by our love and or actions. Show us how to repent. Show us how to stop and take time to listen to Your Spirit.
Jesus, You came to set the captives free (Is. 61:1). We who have so much are held captive by the consumerism around us. We are held captive by the busy-ness that invades our calendars. We isolate ourselves in the midst of plenty, and ignore those in need.
Father, the lonely, the homeless…they are everywhere. Their pain is overwhelming, paralyzing. We don’t know what to say. We don’t know how to comfort them. We look past them to cover our own ineptness. We haven’t asked You what to do or invited the leading of the Holy Spirit into our lives on these issues. Lead us to change.
We often don’t know how to help so we come today asking, “How can we help? What can we do? What can we say? How can we comfort?”
Show us how to commit ourselves to Your purposes in these areas.
Father we pray for the millions of lonely people, especially over the holidays, when aloneness is accentuated. Many people have no family. Many have family but are not welcome amongst them. You have given us a heavenly home, where we will always belong and where we are always welcome. Teach and lead us to invite the lonely to join us as citizens of the Kingdom of Christ.
Teach us to recognize loneliness and avail ourselves to comfort those in need. Oh Father, some of them live in our very homes, feeling lonely and excluded, alienated and unloved. Open our eyes to see these opportunities and pour out Your compassion through us that we might extend Your love to them.
During this season of holidays, family and friend events, the gatherings—may we bring warmth to those who are there and suffer from loneliness. There in our very presence, open our eyes and stir our hearts to bring relief and warmth to those in need.
Father, the homeless are everywhere. They are in our towns, our nations, and the world at large. Many are cold, shivering in the night. Many do not have the skills needed to survive. Bring unexpected blessings to the homeless. Stir those in the vicinity to help.
Strip away the cloud on our eyes that cause blindness in us so that we may be an unleashed army on behalf of these people. Help us to submit to the leading of Your Holy Spirit to bring Your blessing to those in need.
Build up an army of warriors against the challenges that prevent help from being loosed. Those that have financial resources, may they liberally give of their resources. Show them the organizations that diligently use the funding for its intended purpose. May gifting abound to them and may they be excellent stewards. Sustain the energy of these stewards to complete every detail in their charge.
Motivate those individuals who have time to give. Direct their steps to the place that can receive their gift of time. Bring a spirit of collegiality between the givers and receivers and may their time together be joyful. May the receivers be joyful, and the givers be humbled. May the blessing from You—given to those in need— be Your delight.
Father, there is such need of the homeless. The list seems endless and overwhelming: shelter, finances, a job, clothing, food…the entire foundation to be self-sustaining has been wiped out. Yet there are organizations that know how to make sense of the situation and lead people through to a place of dignity and self-sustenance.
We pray for these organizations and ask for the needed funding and know-how. May there be volunteers with the needed skills to help restore these individuals. May their dignity be restored. May You send an unceasing reservoir of hope. Invigorate these people with a drive to secure a life of independence. May they help others and may the successes build into an avalanche of success.
Father, You have entrusted us to be Your hands, Your feet, Your voice, and Your presence. Show us how to be diligent stewards that in the Day of Your Coming, we are found faithful.
In Jesus’ Name.
