A Prayer for Help and Hope in Heartache

Godspeed Church Pastor Luke offered this prayer on Sunday morning. May it provide help and hope in the midst of this deep heartache and tragedy.

Our Heavenly Father,

We gather this morning with deeply thankful hearts . . .heavy hearts, given the POTENT REMINDER, that in this WORLD, SIN and EVIL and HATRED and INJUSTICE have NOT YET BEEN ERADICATED.

Lord, we grasp glimpses at the beauty and mercy to us – as we drive by snow-covered trees, we gather in warm houses, we see one another’s faces, and we’re reminded that we have deserved none of this. We haven’t created for ourselves one breath of life. Every breath / every smile / every laugh / every song we sing . . . is sheer, underserved grace. And so we come you in this Christmas Season… feeling the profound tension between should be and what is , between what will be and what is.

Quiet our hearts in this busy season so that we can see your mercy in the Person of Your Son. Strengthen our hearts to know HOPE when we are discouraged. Give us the JOY of Christmas in the darkness of our world.

Father, we pray specifically this morning for the students and staff members at Brown University. Lord, when evil comes knocking on our door-step, we sense our helplessness.

Many students over the last 12 hours have felt helpless / scared / angry. And Lord, it is right that they should feel that way. Lord, our hearts often so calloused to sin and suffering . . . it is good and right that our hearts be shaken.

Lord, we pray for the families, in particular, the parents of these students who have died. They are facing a day, a weekend, a Christmas they never imagined in their worst nightmare. May they find Gospel Hope, resurrection Hope. 

We pray for these students who are badly injured, some of them fight for their life. Lord, bring your Divine healing. We pray for the students, who are reeling emotionally, we ask that they would find a ROCK, a REFUGE in their pain and anxiety. Lord, You are the our ONLY Rock, Our only Refuge.

Lord, we pray for the students who are members and attend here. Lord, let them be a light on their campus. Help them become missionaries of GOSPEL HOPE when their classmates and teammates are searching for answers. “Why do terrible things happen? Why is evil so prevalent? Is there ever going to be justice?” Lord, let our students have a reason for the hope that lies within them.

Father, we do ask for the earthly justice we can find. We pray for our policemen and women. The investigators. We pray that they find the right person and bring that person to justice. Justice is right and it is good. And our hearts long for it. You are a God of Justice.

 Father, as we gather later this evening, in the darkness, with only the light of candles, we ask that our hearts would be drawn to the LIGHT of the WORLD. The Eternal Son of God who shines the light in our darkness.

O Lord, our hearts need to be drawn out from the mundane, from the silly and the trite; help us see beyond the gifts, the ornaments, the movies, the distractions; help us SEE and BEHOLD the UNIMAGINABLE has occurred. The GLORIOUS SON, who had INHABITED NOTHING BUT DIVINE PERFECT FOR ETERNITY, condescended … became flesh . . . mingled with sinners and suffers… in order to BRING us from our sin and our despair, and bring us to Heaven.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,

All for love’s sake becamest man;

Stooping so low, but sinners raising,

Heavenward by Thine eternal plan.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,

All for love’s sake becamest man.

In the name of Jesus, amen.