A Time to Pray
Pray with the Pastor Tuesday:
Do you need a pastor to pray with you in this unsettling time?
St Luke’s United Methodist Church is offering real time pastoral support and prayer by phone in the community from noon to 3pm each Tuesday. You are invited to call 304-263-2788 during those hours, and if the pastor is on another call, please leave a message.
Sharing our Prayers
Advent 2020
We have a little battalion of prayer warriors at St Luke's UMC, and we want to share some of our prayers for your use through this strange and new Advent season! Share a prayer with us too by simply dropping us an email. May God bless you thorugh these holy days.
Sharing our Prayers
Advent 2020
We have a little battalion of prayer warriors at St Luke's UMC, and we want to share some of our prayers for your use through this strange and new Advent season! Share a prayer with us too by simply dropping us an email. May God bless you thorugh these holy days.
Thanksgiving Friday
November 27
A Child's Prayer of Thanks
God, I thank you for the family and friends you surround me with. Thank you for another day to wake up and celebrate life. Thank you for the strength to play and food to nourish me. Most importantly, thank you for your love for me. Amen.
Thanksgiving
November 26
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
"But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’" Jonah 2:9
"The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him." Psalm 28:7
"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High." Psalm 50:14
Harvest Prayer
Please be gentle with yourself and others
We are all children of the Creator,
And none can say why some fields blossom
beneath the harvest sun.
Take hope that your season will come.
Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.
Care for those around you.
Look past your differences.
Their dreams are no less than yours,
Their choices in life no more easily made.
And give.
Give in any way you can. Give in every way you can. Give whatever you possess.
Give from your heart. To give is to love.
To withhold is to wither.
Care less for the size of your harvest than for how it is shared,
And vour life will have meaning And your heart will have peace.
from an anonymous 17th century sermon
-Contributed by Cliff and Barbara B.
Thanksgiving Saturday
November 28
For the Mission of the Church
Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile
the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those
whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the
Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the
earth a community of love has been gathered together by
their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants
call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and
the glory are yours for ever. Amen.
First Sunday of Advent
November 29
Navajo Prayer
May it be loving before us
May it be loving behind us
May it be loving above us
May it be loving all around us
In loving it is begun…
-contributed by Pat G.
First Monday of Advent
November 30
My prayer is Psalm 121 and was also in the Upper Room last week:
Creator God, sweep away all our anxiety and make us new again.
Grant us peace in mind, body and spirit. Amen
Blessings, Pat I.
First Tuesday of Advent
December 1
The Serenity Prayer
My ultimate favorite prayer is the Serenity Prayer, I do not know who wrote it:
God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Amen.
"My ultimate favorite prayer." - Cassie T.
First Wednesday of Advent
December 2
First Thursday of Advent
December 3
Prayer from Persia
All that we ought to have thought and have not thought
All that we ought to have said, and have not said,
All that we ought to have done and have not done;
All we ought not to have thought, and yet have thought,
All that we ought to have spoken, yet have not spoken,
All that we ought not to have done, and yet have done;
For thoughts, words and works, Pray we, O God, for forgiveness.
-contributed by Pat G.
First Friday of Advent
December 4
First Saturday of Advent
December 5
Prayer from a Friend
This is a prayer written by a pastor friend of mine Rev. Cynthia Belt. I have found it helpful in my dealing with “These Days and Times”.
God of our days and times: come close to us in this hour. Calm our hearts and minds, restore our spirits, and give us peace. Lord, put at rest our fears, bolster our courage and our compassion; increase our capacity for love. In this season, we have been made uncomfortable; our movements have been curtailed; we are inundated with often conflicting information; our minds are racing, but we cling to your promise to be with us always. We are your creation and our hearts can safely trust in you.
During our time of social isolation, help us to get closer to you. Let compassion rise in us and send us an extra anointing of your love. Allow us to hear your voice amid the many voices around and restore our joy. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!
-contributed by Pastor Dan W.
A Time to Pray
Second Sunday of Advent
December 6
Give Me the Listening Ear
Give me the listening ear. I seek this day the ear that will not shrink from the word that corrects and admonishes - the word that holds up before me the image of myself that causes me to pause and reconsider - the word that challenges me to deeper consecration and higher resolve - the word that lays bare needs that make my own days uneasy, that seizes upon every good decent impulse of my nature, channeling it into paths of healing in the lives of others.
Give me the listening ear. I seek this day the disciplined mind, the disciplined heart, the disciplined life that makes my ear the focus of attention through which I may become mindful of expressions of life foreign to my own. I seek the stimulation that lifts me out of old ruts and established habits which keep me conscious of my self, my needs, my personal interests.
Give me this day - the eye that is willing to see the meaning of the ordinary, the familiar, the commonplace - the eye that is willing to see my own faults for what they are - the eye that is willing to see the likable qualities in those I may not like - the mistake in what I thought was correct - the strength in what I had labeled as weakness. Give me the eye that is willing to see that Thou hast not left Thyself without a witness in every living thing. Thus to walk with reverence and sensitiveness through all the days of my life.
Give me the listening ear. The eye that is willing to see.
-Howard Thurman, contributed by Brooke C.