Prayers of the People

Prayers of the People

Our Heavenly Father,

Thank you for bringing us here this morning, to gather around in this beautiful sacred place to worship and adore you.

Dear God, help us to truly thank you in all circumstances. Especially when we have problems.

Whenever we feel that our problems keep coming, one after another; whenever we feel that problems land on our laps at the wrong time; whenever we feel that we do not deserve any more problems because we have satisfied our quota and we want to slow down or go somewhere else and do something else or simply stand still or lie down, help us to wake up to the fact that the rest of our life is just beginning.

Help us to tremble with expectation and an even deeper longing for Your presence and Your leading because of what you have in store for us to do, with the rest of our life that began when we thought we were done.

Spare us dear God, from spoiling the best that you saved for last. Help us to remove or reduce our excess baggage of preconceived notions,  prejudices, personal reservations, deflating attitude of “been there, done that,” and second-guessing even Your plans.

Help us instead, dear Father, to listen to you even more closely with our survivor’s instinct and trust so that we will hear and feel your prompting whenever we ask: “Dear God, what else do you want me to do with the rest of my life?”

Starting today, help us to live each day as if it is our last. Not because we know your plans, but because we want to do our best with each day that is truly a gift, at the same time ready and unafraid, without any cause to cling to this earth when You call us home. Help us to see everyone we meet with fresh eyes, especially those who are closest to us: our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our children.

Help us to set aside our possibly misplaced expectations and instead see and listen with our heart to our own grown sons and daughters who are living with us or have come back home. Help us to discover Your gift to us inside this situation, help us to rejoice and thank You for this circumstance, help us to trust that You will show us far more loving adjustments and rearrangements of our lives that we did not see before. Instead of sending our children and siblings away, help us to see the gains in staying together, working together, growing old in their company, and caring for them until we are the ones who will need to be cared for.

Our Heavenly Father, in closing we lift up to you in prayer those who died or were injured and whose homes were destroyed because of the earthquake that shook Guatemala, Mexico, and El Salvador just this Friday, September 6. These disasters took place in countries on the other side of the world, but we feel that their suffering and misfortune are our suffering and misfortune as well. They are our fellow human beings, our fellow stewards of this earth that You created, our fellow recipients of the fruits of this earth.

We also lift up to You the families here in the Philippines whose lives and homes were severely affected by the floods last month. Thank you for this fresh reminder of the effects of climate change and the consequences of our human weaknesses and shortsightedness. Thank You for using this natural disaster to make us step outside of our relatively comfortable lives to help the less fortunate who suffer again and again from calamities like this.

Thank You dear God for expanding our capacity to be compassionate,  generous, and resourceful in helping others. And thank You for continuously challenging us so that we will tirelessly realign and reinvent ourselves to be always part of the solution and not part of the problem, striving always to be instruments of Your peace whereby others will see Your love and goodness in our words and actions.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

b / 2013 September 8

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Our heavenly father, we come before you this morning to praise You and adore You.

You are our Lord, our everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. You will still be there even after the waters of the oceans rush inland and sweep away our homes. You will still be there even after we lose our husband, or our wife, or our parents, or even our children.

You are everlasting and will still be there even after we get sick or go hungry, lose our jobs, get demoted, get bypassed, are ignored, are left behind or abandoned, even attacked, maligned, or persecuted. You will still be there even after we grow old and weak and we need to let go of the pace and the life that we became accustomed to.

Indeed, You are our Lord and everlasting God, who will still be there when all our cares are over and we join you in heaven above.

Our Lord and our God, praise be to You who does not grow tired or weary. You pick us up no matter how many times we stumble. You lead us back no matter how many times we stray. You listen to our prayers, day after day and night after night. Time and time again, you provide for our needs, in ways we could never imagine.

We also praise you as our God who understands us in a way that no one can fathom. How can we explain the peace that comes to us when we honestly lay before you in prayer our agony over a difficult decision? How can we explain the balm that soothes our pain when we admit to you in prayer our shame over our thoughts and actions?

Because we know that you can see what is in our hearts, we can tell you everything and trust that you will not condemn us, but instead, guide us.

We therefore come before you dear Father, to also confess our sins and our shortcomings.

We confess that we are discouraged when we are tired and weary, we forget that only those who hope in You will have their strength renewed.

We confess that we are puzzled when our plans do not take off, we forget that only those who hope in You will soar on wings like eagles.

We are shocked and caught off guard when we collapse, worn out and empty; we forget that only those who hope in You will run and not grow weary, will walk and not be faint.

Forgive us dear Lord our God, for our sins and our shortcomings. Bless us and keep us always.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

b / 2011 April 10

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Our heavenly father, we come before you this morning to praise You and adore You.

You are the everlasting God. You were there even before the beginning of everything, You will be there after our lives on this earth are ended.

You created our world. You created the hills and plains, mountains and valleys, rivers and seas, burning deserts and freezing tundra, all the way to the ends of the earth and the universe as we know it. 

You also created us. You created our parents and their parents before them, you created our children, and our children’s children. You created our jobs, our careers, our vocations, our accomplishments. You created the opportunities that fell into our laps, as well as those that slipped between our fingers; the paths that we have followed, as well as roads we have not taken.

And yet, having created all this and more, You did not — and You will not — grow tired or weary. We are awed by Your power and Your majesty.

Dear Father, we also come before You this morning to confess our sins and our shortcomings.

When we feel that our colleagues, our friends, our family members, and even our loved ones do not feel our pain or sympathize with our problems, it is really because we forget to pray and turn to You. We forget that You know us, and that You know what is in our heart. We forget that You are there with an “understanding that no one can fathom.”

When we feel tired and weary of our responsibilities and obligations, it is really because we forget to look up to You. We forget that we can lay down our burdens before You. We forget that we can rest in You. We forget that You will always give us strength for yet another day.

When we feel too weak to go on, too overwhelmed by the complexity and difficulty of what we have to do, too intimidated by people we have to face, it is really because we forget to stop and first talk to You. We forget to open our hearts to You and listen to You. We forget that You are there to reassure us, guide us, lead us, and teach us. We forget that when we dwell in You, when we spend time with You, when we hope in You, when we worship You, when we refresh ourselves in You, and when we renew our strength in You, we can “soar on wings like eagles… run and not grow weary… walk and not be faint.”

Indeed, we confess that we allow worry, selfishness, anxiety, and fear to creep into our lives. The truth is, you gave us Your Son so that instead we can choose peace, love, hope, and joy.

Forgive us dear Father, bless us and keep us always.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

b / 2010 December 26

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Our heavenly father,

We come before you this morning to praise you and adore you.

We praise you because you made us. You are the architect of all creation. You made the earth, the oceans and rivers and seas, the mountains and plains, all the plants and animals, all human beings.

We praise you because you made our bodies. You help us grow, you heal us when we get sick, you mend us when we get broken.

We praise you because when one of us had a motorcyle accident and broke his neck, we were all shattered. And yet, here we are — praying and trusting you as we follow his progress, lifting him up to you, entrusting his recovery to you, becoming stronger in our faith that your power, your grace, and your wisdom will reinforce, if not replace, our puny human efforts.

We praise you even more because we know that even as you have one of us in the palm of your hand, you are fully present as well for each and everyone of us. There is no such thing as “God is preoccupied with someone else.”

You can see inside the heart of every person in this room, and you know in detail every wound, every scar, every broken spirit, every pain, every weakness, every shameful secret, every suffering. We praise you because in spite of that, you never abandon us, you comfort us, you give us strength and grace, you guide us on the right path, and you lead us to peace and joy.

Dear father, we also confess that we have sinned against you: this week, yesterday, even this morning.

We have been cold-hearted and self-centered. We did not care enough to attend to the needs of those close to us, those who are weak or needy, those who are sick or lonely.

We have been unkind in our words and actions. We have been  insensitive, impatient, and short tempered. We have used hurtful words in our encounters with our own children, our spouse, our parents and siblings, our co-workers, even with strangers.

We have entertained and passed on gossip that did not do anyone any good: gossip that only harmed further the person we gossiped about, harmed the person who spoke it, harmed the person we passed it to, and harmed us as well by making us less than our better selves.

We’ve had lapses in our ways and unwittingly served as enablers of unethical practices. We point to others as guilty, when in truth we ignore, tolerate, allow, accept, and sometimes even succumb to the same practices in varying degrees.

We have also chosen it seems, in some instances, to be part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. When there are efforts by others to do good, we act as if we want them to fail. We heckle from the sidelines, we do not step forward to help, we do not set a good example by our own behavior.

We therefore come before you this morning, so that in the same breath that we praise you and adore you, we also confess our sins and ask for your forgiveness.

Our Father and our God, we beg you: let your strength and your goodness pour into us — so that we we will not only think and feel, but also act, in ways that are more like yours.

In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

b / 2010 July 11

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Our God and Heavenly Father,

We come before you this morning to praise you and adore you. We worship you as our God, we venerate and honor you and pay homage to you. We look up to you with reverance, and we glorify you and all your works. We love you deeply and profoundly, and we need your help, as in all things, to show that love in all that we think and say and do.

We also come before you to confess our sins and shortcomings.

We confess that we often succumb to feeling alone and abandoned: because our friends our busy, our siblings do not reply to our email, our spouses are distracted, our children are on their own, and we have no one to laugh or to cry with. We forget that there is You, and You alone, who is always with us, holding us by the right hand, never letting go.

We confess that we allow ourselves to be misled, disappointed, betrayed, and sold out by people we expect to know better: heads of state, commanders of armies, politicians, mass media practioners, marketing specialists, lawyers and judges, or simply well-meaning but compromised acquaintances. We forget that it is You, and You alone, who will always and faithfully guide us with your wise counsel.

We confess that our heads are spinning with wild dreams because we place our bets on mere mortals to make things happen: business partners, investment portfolio managers, financial backers, political godfathers, impressarios who paint grand scenarios. We forget that it is You, and You alone, who will take us into glory.

We confess that our time, our energies, our thoughts, our heartaches and our affections are held captive by our earthly possessions and temporal concerns. For some of us it is our crumbling old house, our dilapidated family car, our antiquated computer, our old pair of shoes that sorely need mending. For others it is our condos and apartments for rent, our tax-free imported cars, our state-of-the-art cellphones, our false belief that we are truly connected — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We forget that earth really has nothing that we should desire aside from You: You alone, and Your kingdom.

Finally dear Father, we confess, we acknowledge, we cannot deny what we are seeing. Groups of people indeed conspire and plot, those who are in power indeed gather together and take their stand against You.

We can only look for comfort and seek refuge in Your Word: That “the One enthroned in heaven” laughs and scoffs at those who do this, and that He “rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath.”

Grant that we will be among the wise who heed Your warning, to “serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.”

Sustain us in our faith that those who ask of You, and of You alone, are the ones who will inherit the nations and possess the ends of the earth.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

b / 2010 March 21

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning to adore you, to praise you, and to rejoice in you.

You are our God whose power and glory is manifested in the earth and in the heavens, by things both seen and unseen.

You created the sun, moon, and stars in the sky; the mountains, valleys, rivers, and oceans; all living creatures, including man. Everything exists by your design; all proclaim your majesty and power.

You are our provider, the source of our health and well-being, the one who gives us our food, the one made us a steward of our earthly possessions.

You are our light in the darkness, our reassurance when we are in doubt, our warmth when we feel empty and cold, our comfort when we are in pain.

You give us relief in our distress, bring joy in the face of sadness, spark cheer in the midst of drabness.

You enlighten our small minds, you soften our hardened hearts, you brighten the dimness of our souls.

You are our friend when we suffer rejection, our companion when we feel alone, our hope when we get discouraged, our balm when our spirits are broken.

You are our contentment when we are disatisfied, our stability when we are pushed and pulled in different directions, our serenity when we are rattled and pressured.

Truly, you are our God who is always with us, our God who never abandons us, our God who takes care of us, our God who protects us and watches over us.

From beginning to end you are our God — our God who made us, our God who knows us, our God to whom our lives belong, our God in whom we rest when we are weary, our God to whom we all go home.

Knowing that you, our Heavenly Father, are all this and more, we confess all our sins and shortcomings.

We have been weak, we did not always keep you in our hearts, we ignored your guidance for our thoughts and actions, we succumbed to laziness and distractions and temptation, and we did wrong because of the things we did and did not do.

Our Heavenly Father, we humbly confess all this to you, even if you already know the deepest secrets of our hearts.

Forgive us, shower us with your everlasting grace and mercy, and draw us closer than ever to you.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Prayers of the People

Our God and Heavenly Father, hear O Lord the prayers of your people.

For these times when national economies all over the world seem to be on the verge of collapsing, when 150-year old financial institutions go bankrupt, and more than one trillion US dollars in stocks disappear in a single trading day, we pray that you will remind us O Lord, that a 700 billion dollar bailout is puny when compared to the scope and the dimensions of your love, mercy and forgiveness for us when we fall.

For this earth on which live in, we pray that you will help us to be good stewards O Lord. Guide us in enjoying without destroying and depleting its oceans and rivers and streams, its mountains and cliffs and plains, its forests and trees and plants.

For our leaders in government, in business, in the military, in health and in education, we pray that you will guide them towards decisions that are ethical, moral, sustainable, and for the common good. Give them the vision, the inspiration and the courage to make choices that benefit the most number of people and uplift the most needy.

For our church, its pastors, its leaders, and its congregation, we pray that you will guide us and bless us in everything that we do. Help us to feel your presence: in every worship service, every hymn that we sing, every anthem sung by our choir, every prayer offered aloud in public or whispered softly in private, every small group meeting, every interaction between one person and another.

For our teachers, doctors and nurses, midwives and caregivers: those who attend to the well being of others, especially the sick and needy, enable them O Lord, to serve with dedication and joy. Sustain them and guide them with your strength and love.

For those who trespass against us, who knowingly or unknowingly hurt us or harm us, help us to forgive them Lord, in the same way that you forgive us when we trespass against you.

For those whose neighbors, friends and loved ones have moved to faraway places, we pray that you will make it possible for them to stay in touch and nurture their ties even when apart. For those who are isolated and lonely O Lord, grant that they will find support, companionship, and friendship in the people that you plant beside them.

For those who have died, we pray O Lord that they are now completely at peace in your embrace. For those of us who miss them dearly, we pray that you will ease our grief and comfort us with the certainty that we will, in our own time, join our loved ones in your heavenly kingdom.

For those whose lives are closely and intimately interwoven with ours — beloved family members who still live with us, other members of our household, dear friends who are close by, and people who touch our lives on a day to day basis — may they always be in our hearts, and we in theirs, and may we all continue to live together in joy, safe under your protection and in your keeping.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Our God and Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning to praise you and adore you.

We are amazed and full of wonder, that each one of us is your special creation: newborn babies, little children, teenagers, young adults, mid-life men and women, and senior citizens.

We are also grateful and humbled, that our specific circumstances are, in your wisdom, that way for a reason: our having or not having a job, a house, or a car; our being in the pink of health, or being ill; our being young and strong, or being old and weak. The events around us are also known to you, and part of your grand design.

We are in awe and full of thanks, that no matter what stage our life is in, whatever the state of our health or finances, and whether it is peace or unrest that reigns over our surroundings, it is you, dear Father, who is the designer, the architect, and the director of it all. You watch over us, you comfort us and heal us, you strengthen us and give us hope, and you give us life itself.

Father, we also come to you this morning to confess our sins and shortcomings.

When it comes to our daily routines, we confess that sometimes, we reduce our waking hours to merely completing task, after task, after task. We forget to slow down. We forget to unload. We forget to dwell on the meaning of what we’re doing. And, we forget to stop and talk to you. We do not feel joy because the sun is shining, we fail to find peace in the quiet of the evening, and we fail to see and appreciate your gentle blessings.

When it comes to our children, our spouses, our parents, our siblings, and our other loved ones, we confess that after doing our best for them, we still worry excessively. We try to control and run their lives, and succumb to needless stress and anxiety. We forget that we can also entrust our loved ones to you. We forget that your love and care for them never fails. And, we forget that you can truly do for them “better things than we can desire or pray for.”

When it comes to our relationships and actions, we confess that we pay more attention and respond more quickly to our cellphones, to our email, and to clever and seductive advertisements on billboards, display windows, glossy magazines, and television. We fail to heed or respond to someone needing help, comfort, encouragement, or a kind word. We fail to follow your prodding to do the right thing in personal and business dealings. And, we fail to hear and respond to your still, small voice.

When it comes to our hearts, our minds, and our bodies, we confess that we do not take care as much as we should. We allow our hearts to harden, grow cold, and lacking in compassion. We allow our minds to harbor dark and fearful thoughts. And, we allow our bodies to become unhealthy and unfit. We fail to be good stewards of these earthly faculties with which you equipped us, and we fail to fully honor this life on earth that you have given us.

Forgive us, dear Father, for our sins and our shortcomings. Help us to always trust in your goodness, your care and your protection, your leading and your mercy.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Our God and Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning to praise you and adore you.

How awesome is your power, that You can allow the waters to rise and the mountains to crumble, yet keep the most helpless among us safe and alive because it is not part of Your design for them to perish and die.

How great is your wisdom, that You can lead us and guide us, close a door and open another, give us trials as well as blessings, and shepherd us all our lives until we are safe and finally home.

How deep is your love and how boundless your mercy, that no matter how grave our problems, how terrible our mistakes, how shameful our secrets, and how often we stumble and fall, we can pray to You for forgiveness, we can find in You our salvation.

We confess that sometimes we are lazy: we lie back and let things slide, we neglect what we should care for.

We confess that sometimes we are in bad shape: we give in to harmful urges, we lash out and hurt our loved ones because we are not all right.

We confess that sometimes we are weak; we go for what is meaningless and flashy, we become a little crooked because it is easy.

We confess that sometimes we are greedy; we buy things we do not need, we grab for more of what we have enough of.

We confess that sometimes we are self-righteous: we call others insensitive or uncaring, we deny that we are guilty of exactly the same faults.

And we confess that sometimes we forget You: we wander around in the darkness, we do not seek and move towards You.

Forgive us dear Father, for our sins and our shortcomings. May your peace and loving presence occupy our hearts right now, throughout this day that you have made, and always.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Prayers of the People

Our Heavenly Father,

Once again, we are gathered here together to come before you with our prayers.

For those of us who live and work in Manila and other parts of the Philippines, there are recent events that are jarring, troubling, and scary.

We read about shoppers and workers and students, violently and suddenly killed by a still undetermined explosion in a nearby shopping mall. We read about a kind and gentle woman who is also a wife and mother and a public servant, dying in a terrible and senseless car accident in the dead of the night. And we read about an eleven-year-old girl taking her own life out of despair, because of the poverty of her family.

These are stories of what can very well happen to some of us, about how suddenly and unexpectedly our lives can be cut short. How, in the midst of life, we can be snatched by death.

Dear God our Heavently Father, stories about events like these can shatter our foundations, if not for your presence in our lives. But because you are there, we can manage to continue even in the face of pain, disappointment, uncertainty, and even fear. Because you are there, we live lives that also contain hope, and joy, and a simple but deep gladness in the work that we do in the places where we are planted.

For those of us who are approaching the twilight of our lives but continue to be plagued by anxiety about our place in the scheme of things, our dwindling tomorrows, and even the future of our children who are already adults, help us to remember that our lives are truly in your hands.

For those of us who are in mid-life but are worried about our young children, our aging parents, and other family members and friends who are sick and broken, help us to entrust to you those who are dear to us, knowing that you are indeed “doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for.”

For those of us who are afraid we can no longer hear your voice, help us to remember that in a busy and noisy world we can always find little oases of stillness and quiet where we can feel your presence as we open our hearts to be filled with your spirit.

For those of us who can’t seem to find our mission in life, rescue us from the treadmill of unfulfilling work; coach us in the pursuit and exercise of our true vocation; and place us where our talents, our gifts, our energy, and our enthusiasm go into doing real good and satisfying real needs.

Father, you can see what is in our hearts and you know our most intimate hopes and fears. We especially lift up to you a husband and wife. For seven years now, he has been paralyzed and bedridden and she has been faithfully caring for him. Bless them on this day that is very special to them, continue to bless them as they stay together under your protection and in your care.

As we navigate our way through this troubled earth, allow us to continue bringing before you our cries for reassurance, relief, mercy, pardon, forgiveness, and your abiding grace.

Help us to steadfastly turn to you in times of trouble and uncertainty. Help us to see that you have been our protector and provider and the faithful steward of our lives from the moment we were born up to where we are right now. Help us to trust you when we cannot see what’s ahead and we don’t know what to do. Help us to pray often, dear Father, and whenever we do, fill us with your spirit so that we will feel it when you rebuke, correct, or warn us; heal when you comfort and console us; hear when you prompt and encourage us; become grateful and humble when you shower us with blessings.

And when the time comes for our life on this earth to end, help us to accept it not as a death but as a new birth, not as an end but as the beginning of a new life with you.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

/ b 2007 November 11