Today, God we are a people in mourning. We mourn the way sin has infected justice. We mourn the way sin has turned your image bearers against your image bearers. Meet us here Lord. We mourn that we have ignored  issues that keep resurfacing with more and more vigor. We mourn that we have failed to follow your edict to love others as you have loved us. We fail in this daily Lord. Please forgive us. We mourn the lives that have been lost in the past weeks, around the world and in our own country. We know that the circumstances of our world must break your heart. Help us to mourn with you. Break our hearts for what breaks your heart. In our mourning, bind us together Lord.

Thank you that you are with us in our mourning and even in our righteous anger. Lord, I ask that you would grant peace and hope to us. As we take shelter in you, help us to remember that you have overcome the sin that runs rampant. I pray that your peace, the peace that is greater than our understanding, would invade our hearts. I ask that your peace would walk with our mourning and anger because our mourning and anger still have a place in our hearts. We need your peace Lord. Walk with us. As we seek peace for our hearts, bind us together Lord.

We come to you, in need of you and in need of your perfect love which drives out fear. You have not called us to be a people of fear. I ask that you would remove fear from our hearts for fear makes us choose sides. Fear gives us permission to turn our hearts and eyes from the things we do not wish to see. Fear maintains the status quo. I don’t have answers, but there is one thing I know. God, you have called us to be a people of love. Bind us together with your love, love that is bigger than all of our concerns and larger than our fear.

Lord, I plead that you would give us strength to be people of love. People of your love are people of action. Jesus was our example – he was unafraid of being contrary, unafraid to take a stand, unafraid to lead. And it was your love and power that that made that possible God. And that same love and same power is available to us today. Thank you for that. Your Love steps into suffering and pain and makes way for healing. Give us what we need to offer comfort from the depths of Your Love. Your Love fights injustice. Make us warriors of truth. Your Love breaks walls and mends bridges. God, help us to use our words to mend. We ask for Your Love today because we can’t love well on our own. Give us your love so that we may love with a love that is not of us.

You are a great God and you will make a way even when don’t see one. You are bigger than all that overwhelms us. I praise you that even when the weight of our burdens is too much, you will make a way. Lord, please make the path clear for us that we might be your hands and feet. I pray we would seek and find opportunities to be image bearers that reflect you. I ask Lord that your ever present Spirit would go with each of us. I pray that your people would come together to represent your way and your will on this earth. Please go before us. Bind us together Lord, that we may reflect you well.

Amen.