Prayer of Adoration Confession

One of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray…”
Jesus replied, Ask, and it will be given you;
search, and you will find;
knock, and the door will be opened to you.

Let us come to God in searching prayer.

Holy One
Open to us the door of your love:
the love you pour out for us in the life of Jesus Christ
and in our hearts through the Holy Spirit; the love that washes away our fear.

Open to us the door of your wisdom:
the wisdom that is the goal of our questioning, the healing of our confusion, direction in our uncertainty.

Open to us the door of your compassion:
the compassion that is the river of your tears, washing the world with healing.

Open to us the door of your joy:
the joy that lifts us singing into the light of freedom like birds at dawn.

Open to us the door of your hope:
the hope that gives meaning in an age without meaning,
like a seed sprouting with fresh, new life in a barren place.

Open to us the door of your peace:
the peace that rises like a life-giving spring in the desert of our anxiety.

Open to us the door of your strength:
the self-giving, life-changing, earth-renewing strength of the cross.

We ask – give us your Spirit within.
We seek – show us the face of Christ.
We knock – open your very self to us.

Amen

Prayer of Confession

We all carry fears, secret shames and unhealed wounds from the generations before us,
from our culture, and from personal experience.
This is the debt that tips our hearts off balance, and inclines us towards destruction.

O Lord you have searched me and know me;

You are acquainted with all my ways.

Let us therefore name those fears, shames and hurts before God and one another,
that the light of God’s healing power might shine on all that lies at the roots of our indebtedness.

We confess that we have sinned in thought,
word and deed by what we have done, we have left undone, and the wrong done on our behalf.

 

Receive the gifts that we bring. Heal us, reconcile us, make us whole we pray;
take from us our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh
that what You are by nature we might become by Your grace.
If anyone is in Christ the whole creation is made new;
the old has gone, the new has come, and sin is forgiven.

Thanks be to God.

Amen

by Peter Blair, offered for worship, 28/7

Prayers of the people

Our Father in Heaven
Motherly God
Abba,

Christ
Saviour
Lord,

Spirit
Comforter
Sustainer,

Hallowed be your name.

We see your holy presence among us
In the conversations between Israelis and Palestinians who search for an end to occupation
In the measured and thoughtful conversations among leaders
as we struggle to recognise Indigenous Australians, the first peoples of this land.
In the smiles we share with one another, a recognition of a friend or an open heart to a stranger.

Your Kingdom Come.

May we be ready to join you in creating a better world
In times of conflict may we look for common ground
Where people are bypassed and their voices denied, may we speak up
Where our environment is abused, may we take action.

Give us each our daily bread.

We look around us, and see people who are ill, who are struggling to find work.
We recognise people who are homeless, who are lonely.
We know that people are hungry, are cold, and are struggling to pay their power bills.
And we pause to pray for the people who are on our hearts to day.

May we walk alongside one another as we face our different trials.
May we know that you are with us, saving us and uplifting us, always.

Amen.

by Kirsty Bennett, offered for worship, 28/7