A Prayer For Our Community…

Lord, we at Trinity Community Church lift up our voice to you, joining millions of others who are coming to you this morning, not only in this nation but around the world. We thank you for a President who has called people of faith to request of you help in this our hour of need. Lord truly we find ourselves once again (as we have many times before in our history) in need of great mercy and profound wisdom. So first, my God, we humble ourselves before your throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We confess before you today that in our own power and wisdom we are not able to fight this disease. Only you can give us the wherewithal to be victorious in this hour.

So we are asking O God that you would be merciful to us by first granting us a spirit of repentance. Lord, we don’t deserve anything we ask of you but we come as beggars, mindful of your promises. Lord, grant to our people an acknowledgment of sins committed. We humble ourselves deeply before you. And Lord, we come asking you to remember your promise made in Psalm 91:

“I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.”

Lord, we humbly ask you for faith to trust you in accordance with these words you have given us in this Psalm. Lord, stem the tide of this growing disease in our country by healing those who have already contracted it and protecting those who have not from getting it.

Lord, we lift up before you today our President and Vice President, the Cabinet and Congress and ask that you enable them to lead this country in this time of severe testing with wisdom and grace. Embolden them to lead in accordance with godliness and bolster them from any attacks. And we humbly ask you for the gift of unity; that we would truly be able in this hour to stop fighting each other and become united in a common effort to carry out the people’s business. Let not political interests be uppermost in our minds but the welfare of the people of this nation.

And Lord, as is often the case, you often use extreme trials and testings as the seedbed for revival. O God, grant that in the midst of this crisis, millions of people would recognize their helplessness and begin to turn to you. We boldly ask you to make the nations aware that they are powerless against this and let people begin to call upon God. We are asking that millions would turn to you in this hour.

And Lord, we pray this would not be short-lived as it was in the days following 911; when people flooded churches to pray but as the days went on fell back to familiar patterns. Grant in this present crisis fruit that will remain. Let this pandemic issue in a worldwide outpouring of the Spirit that leaves in its train, real evidence of lives that have been transformed by the Gospel.

We end by saying that we acknowledge you in the midst of the pestilence as the only one who can give lasting help. We thank you for every medical worker, nurse and physician who are working tirelessly to find a cure and care for the infected. You have raised them up for such a time as this. But we acknowledge that we need you above all others. For unless the Lord gives us his grace, we are without help. So move speedily Lord and stem the tide of this increasing pestilence.

We ask it in Jesus name, Amen