TableTalk

L: Eternal, Almighty, God our Father,

Because you are sovereign in all history – past, present and future – and supreme over all creation – visible and invisible – and compassionate toward all you have made – especially your children – we come to you with our prayers for the Church in the world. We pray especially for that part of the Body that is presently suffering, bleeding, grieving and in some places, clinging desperately to life.

We consider Jesus Christ our Saviour Redeemer, who as “Emmanuel” – God with us – was a “cross-bearer.” He suffered unjustly to redeem his Church, which now suffers unjustly to spread the blessings and Good News of redemption to the world.

We approach the throne of grace emboldened by the knowledge that because he suffered and was tempted, Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, does sympathise with those who suffer and are tempted. So we boldly request your promised grace and mercy be poured out upon our brothers and sisters who are this day in great need.

For those who have, through systematic discrimination, been forced into crippling poverty:

R: Lord, in your mercy, comfort them and provide them with their daily needs.

L: For those who are abused and intimidated by hostile state authorities, or religious militants or zealots:

R: Lord in your mercy, protect, comfort and encourage them.

L: For those who live as refugees or as people displaced by terrorism, war and/or persecution:

R: Lord, in your mercy, grant them comfort, security and peace, and provide all their daily needs.

L: For those who walk daily in the valley of the shadow of death:

R: Lord, in your mercy, grant them courage and assurance of your presence and faithfulness.

L: For those who are suffering violent persecution:

R: Lord, in your mercy,

- free the enslaved and return them to their homes;

- release the imprisoned and restore them to their families and churches;

- heal the emotional, spiritual and physical wounds of the traumatised, grieving, disillusioned, doubting, tortured and brutalised;

- restore the soul of the faint-hearted.

L: We thank you for your Holy Spirit who never leaves us and is present with our suffering brethren, even in the darkest, most secret, place. May your Spirit comfort, counsel,

and restore our persecuted brethren, including those who suffer outside our field of vision and beyond our reach to aid.

L: We pray for the leaders of nations and for all those with authority and influence on this earth:

R: Lord, in your grace and mercy - convict them of guilt regarding sin, righteousness and judgment;

- turn their hearts towards righteousness, justice and religious liberty;

- and, for the sake of the world, remove those who defiantly resist your Spirit, and replace them with leaders raised up to be your instruments for good.

L: We pray these things with confidence because you have already promised that you will do it.

You are the God who breathes life into the dead. You are the God who redeems and sanctifies. You are the eternal, supreme and sovereign God who raises up and tears down powers on the earth and in the heavens. You are the God who is building your Church and filling the whole earth with your glory.

Revive your Church throughout the whole world, and by your Holy Spirit working in and through her, do immeasurably more than we could ever dare ask or even hope, not because we deserve it, but because you are merciful and faithful to all your promises for your own name’s sake…

R: …and to God be all the glory, now and forever.

AMEN.

Written by Elizabeth Kendal (WEA RLC) for IDOP

IDOP

Join the world’s largest prayer group on November 12th for the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Resources and materials are available at www.idop.org

Grab the text for this and other prayers at wmpl.org/tabletalk/category/supplications/

Give us O Lord, we pray Thee, a mind after Thine own heart, that we may delight to do Thy will; and may Thy law be written on our hearts. Give us courage and resolution to carry out the work Thou didst give us to do, and the firm purpose to seek Thy will in every part of our life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Anonymous, cited in Prayer by Olive Wyon (London: Fontana, 1962), p. 45.

Holy Father, enable us, we pray Thee, as members of Thy holy Church throughout the world, to rise to the demands of our high calling, and to give ourselves wholly to Thee. May we be able to hear Thy voice speaking to us in the midst of the turmoil, perplexity, and distress of the present time. Cleanse, accept, and use us, we pray Thee, for the unity of the Church and for the salvation of the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Anonymous, cited in Prayer by Olive Wyon (London: Fontana, 1962), p. 45.

Give us light, O Lord, that contemplating the love and patience of Jesus and His saints we may be changed into love and patience. Take from us all selfishness, all softness and fastidiousness. Take from us all cowardice and timidity, and all self-love. Give us a share in their spirit of endurance. Give us a love of labour. Give us a love of the Cross. Give us a spirit of courage and of surrendered trust, that we may be willing to spend ourselves, and to be spent, for the sake of Thy children, in union with Thy self-giving love.

Anonymous, cited in Prayer by Olive Wyon (London: Fontana, 1962), p. 141.

Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, fervently to desire, wisely to search out, and perfectly to fulfill all that is well-pleasing unto Thee. May our path to Thee, we pray, be safe, straightforward, and perfect to the end. Give us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards. Give us an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; give us an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Give us understanding to know Thee, diligence to seek Thee, wisdom to find Thee, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace Thee. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Thomas Aquinas, cited in Prayer by Olive Wyon (London: Fontana, 1962), p. 70.

O God, who hast appointed to all Thy children a war to wage, and a kingdom to win, accept us and fit us, we pray Thee, for Thy service. Enter, cleanse, and inspire our hearts in the day of our visitation. Give to us the spirit not of fear, but of power, of love, and of discipline. Lead us to the battlefields which Thou has prepared for us, and meet us there with the comfort of Thy help: that though of ourselves we can do nothing, yet, by Thy grace and in the fellowship of Thy saints, we may minister to the needs of our generation and the coming of Thy Kingdom in peace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Anonymous, cited in Prayer by Olive Wyon (London: Fontana, 1962), p. 70.

All Saints Sunday

We remember your people, your precious saints, all around the world. We remember today the 164,000 who have lost their lives for their Christian faith this year. Bless the families and communities of faith that grieve their death. Use their testimony as a witness to those who do not know you.

Lord in your mercy

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Bless the church, your people, around the world. Where the church today is persecuted, make it strong. Where our brothers and sisters stand in danger of losing their lives because of their faith, make them hopeful. Make them joyous. We ask you to glorify Jesus through their lives and testimony; and glorify him through ours.

Lord in your mercy

Christ the King Sunday

O Lord Christ: We acknowledge you as King over human kings and earthly governments. Yet more than half of our human family live in nations where sharing the Good News is restricted. Open doors, we pray. Make a way where there is no way so that all peoples in all nations may one day have access to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Lord in your mercy

1st Sunday in Advent

Dear God: In Jesus, you became a human child and we rejected you. You lived among us and we threw you out. Your people, the church, are still rejected and thrown out, in far too many places around the world. We pray for the persecuted church around the world. Make us always faithful. Shine your light in us. And shine your light through us.

Lord in your mercy

Everything by which we are surrounded conflicts with the promise of God. He promises us immortality, but we are encompassed with mortality and corruption. He pronounces that we are righteous in His sight, but we are engulfed in sin. He declares His favor and goodwill towards us, but we are threatened by the tokens of His wrath. What can we do? It is His will that we should shut our eyes to what we are and have, in order that nothing may impede or even check our faith in Him. (Calvin).