Upward Calling and Earthly Realities

Pastoral Prayer, Broadway Baptist Church
February, 2015
Rev. Chris Caldwell

  • Lord, in a few moments we will pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,”

  • and we do pray for your kingdom of heaven to break into our earthly lives

    • may healing overcome illness

    • may hope overcome despair

    • may compassion overcome apathy

    • may love overcome greed

    • may sobriety overcome addiction

    • may wisdom overcome racism.

  • Lord, we have come to your sanctuary to have our eyes drawn upward

    • to be reminded there is more to living than what the eye can see

    • that there is more to grace than the mind can fathom

    • that there is more to love than the coldest heart can stop.

  • So keep our eyes on the prize

    • and our focus on the greater things above,

  • And help us,

    • in Sunday School

    • in Bible study

    • in small groups

    • and in our devotional lives

    • to grow in our understanding of what is true and noble and just.

  • But help us also not to take our eyes off the realities here below

    • even as we pray for what our world can be

    • help us to see our world clearly for what it is, a place where

    • bigots still hate

    • abusers still assault

    • thieves still steal

    • murderers still kill,

  • And hear our prayers also for those whose life callings do not shield them from the places where hell has come to earth.  Hear us as we  pray for

    • soldiers defending civilians from evil people who want to kill them

    • social workers helping people rebuild lives broken by those who have abused them

    • school teachers inspiring dreams in the lives of children whose parents do not nurture them

    • police protecting children from dealers who lie to them

    • missionaries ministering to villages whose world has forgotten them,

  • And forgive us, even as we pray about noble ideas and for noble people

    • when have opted not for the noble, but the convenient

    • not for what which is best, but for that which is easiest

    • Forgive us when we have bent the truth in our direction

    • stacked the numbers in our favor

    • Forgive us when we have seen evil and done nothing

    • when we have seen injustice and said nothing.

  • Help us to practice what we preach

    • Help us to live in our lives what we teach to our children

  • O God, we are your servants

    • which means, on many days, you don’t have much to work with

    • but help us to do better, for our sakes, and for the sake of your world.

 

Amen