A Prayer

Help us O Lord!

We are a hurting, torn and grieving people--
-Our hearts are torn by racial, economic, and religious strife...
-We grieve over the loss of the five Dallas policemen and the men in our nation's cities killed after minor offences.
- We hurt for the officer's families, colleagues, and friends. We should hurt for all those families and communities where fear, anger, and  needless violence leaves widows, orphans, anger and mistrust in their evil wake.

We cry out because in our hurt, torn and grieving heats we are not sure what to do. And yet, maybe the reason we continue to hurt, be torn apart, and grieve is because we know what to do and haven't done it.

       We change policy but not our hearts.
        We seek to control the methods of violence but not our own madness.
          We desire retribution instead of reconciliation.
            We execute vengeance instead of justice, and then we execute each other, and then
             We bury the very ones we should have blessed.

Help us O Lord!

Help us repent and turn from fear, violence and anger to You.
Help each of us take these events personally and determine to be a part of the solution instead of an extension of the problem.
Let us fight for justice for all viewing every life as a life that matters and as Holy and Precious in Your sight. Make us to see the value of every human as made in Your image.
Help us love one another and extend that love across every line of division Satan would draw in our hearts and in our nation.

May we find our unity as a people through faith in your Son, Jesus our Lord. He alone has the power to forgive us, heal us, and form in us His will as He conforms us to His character. Help us love Him supremely and each other faithfully.

 In Him we find our hope, our peace, and our joy.

Help us O Lord.

In Jesus name.
Amen


Prayer written in response to Dallas, Minnesota, Baton Rogue and every city where anger, prejudice, and hate have devastated too, too many. Delivered White Bluff Chapel 7-10-16 
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