Pastoral Prayer: November 22, 2020

O Good and Gracious God,

King of all glory,

You have blessed us with a cornucopia of goodness. 

And You have blessed us with great bounties:

warm homes, food on the table, 

and loving people around us that care for us.

We do not all have the same blessings, 

but we have enough -  

for You, O Lord, always provide just enough. 

When we truly seek to examine our lives,  

we find we have riches beyond realization. 

Holy God, we strive to be mindful and thankful, 

as we seek Your grace and compassion.
And so, we confess these careless thoughts to You: 

 

We confess that sometimes we are barely thankful;
          we say the words, and put a smile on our faces,

but don’t feel gratitude in our hearts.

 

We confess that sometimes we forget how to say thank You;
         we have become arrogant, saying, “I earned this,”
          thinking we have only ourselves to thank. 

We confess that sometimes we are too jealous to be thankful;
          we compare ourselves to others who have more,

saying  “Why do they get everything?”,
          yet we rarely compare ourselves to those who have less.

We confess that sometimes we are too busy to be thankful;
          we asked ourselves this morning, “Do I have time to go to church?”
          and even in worship we are thinking about our to-do lists.

 We confess that sometimes we are grudgingly thankful;
          saying, “I guess this will have to do,”
          while believing that You have given us a raw deal.

We confess that sometimes we are too tired to be thankful,
          as we sigh, “I just want to get through this day,”
          having no energy to open our eyes to Your miracles and blessings around us.

We confess that sometimes we are not thankful enough to be generous;
          we bargain with You, O God, saying, 

“I’ll be unselfish when You give me more,”
          rather than being generous today.

O Lord, we lay these confessions before You, at the foot the cross. 

Though our world gives us the impression 
that we are to wrap up Thanksgiving into just one day, 

maybe a month at most, 

and then proceed on with our lives, 

we will remember that You have called us to a life of thanksgiving. 

We commit to earnestly pursuing a path 

that true thankfulness engenders: 

more compassion, more kindness, more humility, 

more meekness, more patience.

 

And so we pray this simple prayer with our whole heart:
For what we have received, Lord,
make us truly thankful. 
We want to be filled today, 

and every day, with thanksgiving. 

 

We pray all these things in the name of the one we are most thankful for, 

our Lord, Savior, and teacher of all thankfulness, 

Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray and live together...

 

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. 

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.