In Ernest T. Campbell’s collection of prayers, Where Cross the Crowded Way, he prays in triplet. There are few singular prays in the collection. Almost every prayer is one of three. I think each is meant to build upon the other in some way. Usually the first is a confession or observation of some sort. The second flow out of it into prayers for others, and, usually, the third is a prayer for the ones praying.
The pattern doesn’t always follow, but the final triplet in the section “All Sorts of Conditions and People,” holds true. We’ve already prayed the first and second, so this week, let us join together in the third and final of three prayers.
Confident of your care, we pray now for ourselves. For Christ City Church.
We are many things to many people, but in your sight your sons and daughters.
Encourage us in obedience where we have grown lax.
Restore us in tenderness where we have grown hard.
Renew us in purpose where we have grown confused.
Uphold the bereaved in their loneliness, and give our sick to know that your ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, nor your arm short that it cannot save. Bless us, each one, with an unhindered view of your majesty, that, sure of the power at work within us, we may live, not somehow, but triumphantly in Jesus.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.