A Prayer for Peace | 01.06.21

Gracious God, source of all peace and unity, 

We deeply feel our limitations in failing to see your purpose in the events of the past year that include a pandemic, riots, a challenged election, strife among friends, destruction of property, and death. Watching the protest in our capital, we are acutely reminded of Isaiah 55:8 that tells us that “our thoughts are not your thoughts and our ways are not your ways.”

Our nation’s slide toward chaos is a reminder that when we choose to justify ourselves by our ideologies then we miss your will that calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we stand with certainty on our own understanding and fail to listen deeply to the ideas of others, then we fall into the most grievous of sin and must repent. Help us repent of self-righteous attempts to purify the world by our own ideas. 

May the events of today humble us to pray, to listen, to serve, and to open ourselves up to each other. Help us move past our divisions and acknowledge our common humanity to bring about the common good. Be with us, our families, our cities, our nation, and our world in the days ahead. 

We pray this in the name of him who died to give us peace. Amen