July 25, 2020 A daily prayer during this COVID-19 crisis During these difficult days, members of the Granite District of the New England Conference are sharing a daily prayer based on the Revised Common Lectionary for the week. You are welcome to use these in worship or in your own devotions. Today's Prayer Romans 8:26-39 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 8:27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 8:30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. 8:31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 8:32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 8:33 Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 8:34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 8:36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. God of healing, God of peace, we come to you in the midst of this time of uncertainty and turmoil. Every day we see more and more of our brothers and sisters suffering. We see illness take our friends and loved ones. We see our brothers and sisters of color being oppressed and harmed. We see our LGBT siblings being dehumanized and stripped of basic rights. We see politics dividing people over issues that threaten to tear us apart as a church and as a country. We see people struggling to make ends meet in the midst of widespread unemployment. We cry out to you, in the mist of our despair, when will this all end? And you answer, O Lord. You remind us that we are yours, that nothing will separate us from your love. You remind us that in our weakness, you give us your strength. In our fear, you give us your power. In our doubt, you give us your assurance. In our loneliness you give us the comfort of your presence. For all these things Lord, we thank you. Lord, please give us the strength to lean on you, to face the challenges of these times with courage, righteousness and love. Please give us the power to change things that break your heart and ours,  and the peace to accept that which we have no control over. Put a hedge of safety around us, and your hand of healing upon us and those we love. And above all, please help us to always seek your way and your peace no matter the circumstances. These things we ask of you, in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer by Jennifer Savoy, Certified Candidate for Ministry;Â Lay Leader St. James UMC Merrimack, NH; Granite District