Four Prayers for All Saints Day Based on Hebrews 12.1-3

Posted on October 21, 2022 by revlisad

Opening Prayer for All Saints Day
Jesus,
You are The Way, opening the path
You are The Truth, clearing the clutter
You are the Light, blazing the trail

You run
You endure
For the sake of joy
To set joy before us
and in us

Inspire us to keep running
To run remembering joy is our strength
Inspire us to remember and endure

Opening Prayer #2 for All Saints Day
Jesus, Pioneer and Perfector of Faith
Your race comes with a cross
A course of blood and tears
Mocking and piercing

Help us take up our cross and follow
Disregarding shame (that ancient enemy)
In you, it falls by the wayside
Tired scraps on the breath of new life

Help us remember and endure
Help us take up our cross and run
We’ll sit down with you in the next life
Not this one
Amen

Prayer: Help Us Run
Heavenly Father,
You surround us with great and good companions
With witnesses who run the race before us
Now cheering us on
Inspiring us with their courageous faith

Help us run with perseverance

Blessed Jesus,
Pioneer and Perfector of our faith
You blaze the trail
You endure the cross
You disable its shame and ours

Help us run with perseverance

Holy Spirit,
You companion us and supply us
with witnesses running beside us
Churning up the dust of this well-traveled path
Encouraging us with the steady beat of their beautiful feet

Help us run with perseverance
Daring, Enduring, Alive with Hope
Amen

Prayer of Confession for All Saints Day
Run beloved, run
Lay aside every weight
Every worry
Every excuse
Every inner critic shouting against inspiration

Lay aside the sin that clings so closely
Every self-serving motivation
Every self-medicating choice
Every weak thing you’ve trusted more than God

Lay them aside and run
Run beloved, run
Run with perseverance the race
Looking not to the dust, but to Jesus
The Pioneer and Perfecter of your faith
Look not to the right or to the left
Look to Jesus
Focus
Follow

The congregation is invited to offer their own prayers of confession

Run
Run remembering
You are forgiven
Joy is your strength
Run remembering
Our Jesus, who endured
So that you may not grow weary or lose heart
For your strongest step is yet to come

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Leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Three Prayers based on Hebrews 11

Posted on August 9, 2022 by revlisad

I’m blessed, challenged, and encouraged by the writing ministry of Rev. Steve Garnaas-Holmes, a retired United Methodist pastor. I’m grateful for permission to pass along many of them on my blog.

Consider subscribing to his blog, www.unfoldinglight.net. When you do, his prayers will appear in your inbox Monday through Friday. – Lisa <><

Hope by Steve Garnaas- Holmes

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
—Hebrews 11.1

Hope is not optimism, not wishing,
not a bet on the future,
but trust in what is already present, unseen.
I hope in the sunrise because the earth is already turning.
My faith is not that God will intervene
and make things better or fix problems;
my faith is that love is at work.
I trust in hidden love even as injustice runs loose.
I believe in our Oneness even as war and racism wound us.
I know our Belovedness even as we assault each other.
Even though we damage the earth,
though the violent rage and the rich oppress the poor,
still this world is born of Goodness,
and grace flourishes even in bad places,
and Love holds us in aching but untiring arms.
Even when the way is not well lit, I live in hope.

Homeland by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

People who speak of faith make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
— Hebrews 11.14

Beloved Dark Mystery,
among the places I have gone, the places I have stayed,
the places I long to see—
I am seeking a homeland.
A place of deep belonging, of rest and safety,
where my story is part of the story,
my life is part of the beauty.
Whether a native in my native land
or an immigrant still rooting or a ceaseless nomad,
I know my true home, my original soil, is you.
I am at home in you.
You are my womb, my earth, my people, my root.
You, Love that births all being,
you are my homeland,
and I am always coming from you
and traversing you and returning to you.
Here is my gratitude, my peace, and my belonging.
Thank you.
Amen.

Tender by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

When I am weak, God,
let me be weak,
without resistance to your grace.

When I am powerless
may I be empty of all
but your power.

When I am angry
let my anger melt into its fear,
my fear rise into trust.

When I am outraged
let my passion for justice
be benevolent and steadfast.

When I despair
root my longing in your presence,
my desire in your hope.

Loving God, by your sure hand
keep me fearlessly tender,
mercifully strong.

Sermon Series- Wild Man, the Life and Witness of John the Baptist, Parts 3-5

Posted on March 23, 2021 by revlisad

Sermon Series- Wild Man, The Life and Witness of John the Baptist
Message 3 of 5: Increasing and Decreasing
Scripture: John 3:22-30, John Answers His Disciple’s Concerns

Offered Sunday, 3/7/2021 via Facebook Live at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sarasota Florida.

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Sermon Series- Wild Man, The Life and Witness of John the Baptist
Message 4 of 5: Faith and Doubt
Scripture: Matthew 11:2-11, John’s Question from Prison

Offered Sunday, 3/14/2021 via Facebook Live at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sarasota Florida.

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Sermon Series- Wild Man, The Life and Witness of John the Baptist
Message 5 of 5: Bad Things Happen
Scripture: Mark 6:17-29, The Death of John the Baptist

Offered Sunday, 3/21/2021 via Facebook Live at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sarasota Florida.

This message includes a remembrance of the eight persons murdered in Atlanta a few days before. Xiaojie Tahn, Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Yaun, Paul Andre Michels

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You can find us live on Facebook Sundays at 9 AM and 10:30 AM, and Wednesdays at 8 AM.

Here am I – Prayers based on Luke 1.26-38, The Annunciation

Posted on December 15, 2020 by revlisad

Annunciation by Patricia Brintle

Prayer: Mary’s Welcome
Holy Spirit, come
Into the smallness of my life
Into the bewilderment of my being
Into fears that must be faced

Holy Spirit, come
Into the backwoods of my world
Into the places people forget
Into places people put down… what good can come from there

Holy Spirit, welcome
Here am I, the servant of the Lord
Let it be with me according to your word
Amen

Prayer: You Are With Me
I am favored
I am blessed
because you are with me

I am unafraid
Known by name
because you are with me

You are help and home
You are servant and sanctuary
The impossible possible
because you are with me
in me
upon me
let it be
let it be

Like Our Sister Mary,
An Affirmation of Faith for Christmas
Like our sister Mary, we say yes

Yes to your favor
Your presence
Your blessing

Yes that we are enough just as we are
Where we are

Yes to your calling
and the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon us to fulfill it

Yes to bearing and birthing
Your Word and your Promises and your Kingdom
in this time and place

Yes to all things being possible with you

Like our sister Mary we say
Here I am, the Lord’s humble servant
As you have said, let it be done to me
in me
through me

Like our sister Mary we sing and celebrate you
Our God, Our Liberator
For though we are your humble servants
You have noticed us
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Mary’s Welcome © 2010 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You Are With Me © 2014 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Like Our Sister Mary © 2017 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution. (by Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia, http://www.revlisad.com) Please leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Prayers based on Matthew 22.1-14

Posted on October 9, 2020 by revlisad

week 5

Prayers Based on Matthew 22:1-14
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Prayer: Come to the Feast
In the midst of all you are facing
Your labor
Your responsibilities
Your hustle
Hear the invitation
“Come to the Feast!”

In the midst of all you are facing
Your burdens
Your shadows
Your shame
Hear the invitation
“Come to the Feast!”

In the midst of all you are facing
Your longing
Your suffering
Your distractions
Hear the invitation
“Come to the Feast!”

Come, eat and drink
Come, dress up and dance
Come, rejoice in the King’s delight
Your presence
Your “Yes!” to Sacred, Lifelong, Union

Listen…
Listen……
Grace is calling
Come, the feast awaits

Prayer Poem/Hymn Text: Come, Sup with God
Meter 88.88 (LM)
Suggested tunes:
HURSLEY (United Methodist Hymnal #339) or
GIFT OF LOVE (United Methodist Hymnal #408)
*I’d be very interested in working with a composer to set this to music

Come, sup with God all you who thirst
All you who hunger be the first
Feast on Christ’s Body and his Blood
O taste and see this meal of Love

Come, children, elders, blind, and spent
Come, foolish, able, indigent
Confess, repent, and then receive
Forgiveness flows abundantly

Come often, friend, for here is grace
made manifest in time and place
Christ’s mercy floods our brokenness
with healing balm and righteousness

Come to be changed. Come to be fed.
Come savor Christ, the Life, the Bread.
Drink deep the gift of healing poured
and leave a vessel of our Lord.

Sing Praise to Christ our Host and meal
Whose saving work provides the seal
for us once bound, now freed from death
to live for Christ with every breath

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For the next few months, I’ll be posting prayers to accompany Bishop Ken Carter’s Bible Study on Facebook. Each week, Bishop Carter will bring in a guest to speak about the passage. We’ll be walking through the last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew.

You’re most welcome to read along and to join this Facebook discussion group. You don’t need to be a Methodist or attend a Methodist church. All are welcome and all means all.

May the grace of God’s word, the challenge, and the call, inspire us to great faith and great good works in Jesus’ name. – Lisa <

Come to the Feast © 2020 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Come, Sup with God © 2000 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Please leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Revlisad.com

Christian Practices with Rev. Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Tag Archives: faith

Three Prayers based on Hebrews 11

Sermon Series- Wild Man, the Life and Witness of John the Baptist, Parts 3-5

Here am I – Prayers based on Luke 1.26-38, The Annunciation

Prayers based on Matthew 22.1-14