We don’t have to looks much further than our network of relationships, and certainly no further than our immediate neighborhood, to see someone nearing a “breaking-point.” Perhaps we don’t have to even look beyond the mirror.
May our prayer this week jog our awareness and draw us into the brokenness and near-breaking of those whom God has allotted that we should live amongst. Remembering, that he is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:26-28). Let us pray these words adapted from Earnest Campbell, for and with one another.
Father, we pray today for those in our network of relationships and in close proximity to us whoa re near the breaking point:
those who are expected to produce more than they can deliver;
those whose inner grief and loneliness have plunged them into the heart of darkness;
those who need work but find the market tight;
those whose every breath is drawn in a struggle against some dread disease;
those who have been repeatedly rebuffed because of color;
those who have await the release of imprisoned loved ones;
those who slowly inched away from you and suffer now the pain of remembered gladness.
O Father who is able to keep what we have committed to you, impart to the sorely pressed the courage to hang on yet one day more. Let your strength be ministered to them according to their need and your boundless grace. Let our feet and hands, head and heart join with you in ministering grace.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.