prayers of the people: October 18

At the end of the summer, World in Prayer asked me to join their writing team. This week was my first contribution.

It's edited some on their website; here's the original submission:

...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)

Heavenly God:

Help us to rejoice in our suffering.

Help us to endure.

Help us to produce.

Help us to have character.

Help us to hope.

Help us to not be disappointed.

Help us to be filled with your love.

We ask for you to be with us as we watch those who suffer.

Especially as we watch those who are persecuted.

We share in the persecutions within our Holy Scriptures:

the Exodus

the Psalms

the Crucifixion

Help us to rejoice in our suffering.

As we see racism bubble to the surface

in soccer matches in Eastern Europe

Help us to know.

As we await the trial of US soldiers 

who have been arrested on the charge of rape 

in Okinawa

an area that has resisted what it believes to be occupation

Help us to endure.

As we learn of a resurgence in tuberculosis

resistant to our current antibiotics

immune to our current vaccines

what the World Health Organization is calling one of the most "ominous global health threats"

a disease that will be blind to color, creed, sexual orientation, gender, wealth

Help us to produce.

As we pray for the recovery of Malala Yousafzai

a 14-year-old Pakistani girl

shot in the head by the Taliban

for speaking out for girls' rights to attend school

Help us to have character.

As we continue to watch Syria

with refugees streaming to foreign lands

with 2.5 million people remaining in the country in need of aid, according to UN estimates.

Help us to hope.

As the Cuban government

lifts its foreign travel ban

so that its citizens may travel to other countries

so long as they are not

doctors

scientists

or other "highly skilled" professionals.

Help us to not be disappointed.

As the United States' presidential candidates

use women

(their pay, their work habits, their reproductive choices)

to shape votes

Help us to be filled with your love.

We pray for all the persecuted and persecuting, the victims and the oppressors, the outcast and the leaders.

Help us to rejoice in our suffering.

Help us to endure.

Help us to produce.

Help us to have character.

Help us to hope.

Help us to not be disappointed.

Help us to be filled with your love.

Amen.