Prayer for the Week: We explore the holy scriptures in search of what you have done and what has been said about you. O Word of Life that took on flesh, we desire to know you, but if we do not have a starting place in the ancient stories of the faith, we will struggle to know of you and to be in relationship with you. We claim that you are the same yesterday, today and forever. We look to Jesus who is the visible sign of your invisible nature. We read stories of great compassion; we wrestle with parables that invite us to ask difficult questions; we are humbled by acts of true sacrificial love. Allow the witness of these words to spill over us and to engage our hearts and minds. It is not our desire to be conformed to the ways of the world, but to be transformed as we continue to renew ourselves for the ministry of Jesus. If our lives at home, the workplace, on social media or even at church do not represent the beautiful life-giving witness of Jesus, then call us to repentance. Challenge us to confess our sins and to seek a new way – the way of Jesus. O Holy God, you do not expect perfection for you are the gracious One. Yet you do not want grace to be an excuse for spiritual apathy. Encourage our faithful discernment that we might see the heart of Jesus and perceive how his life of love is manifesting itself in this unique moment of time. We offer these words of prayer in the name of your Word that took on flesh. Amen.
