A PRayer for Courage (to go with the Exodus 14 and the crossing of the Sea)

HI God. You know something? Sometimes we feel overwhelmed.
There is something coming that threatens our well-being and in front of us is something blocking our path. And we feel trapped.
We get afraid. We don’t know what to do next.
We need your help.
Then you tend to ask us to take a risk, to step out in faith, trusting that the path will appear.
To be honest, we aren’t always sure we can do that.
And so we pray for courage when the world is rough.
Strengthen us, embolden us, help us jump into the water.
Help us trust that the sea will part, that the path will emerge,
and that we can find ourselves freed from captivity.
God made known in Jesus, God who calls us to take those first small steps.
We pray, we offer our thanks, and we keep stepping forward, traveling along with you. Amen.

For September 11, 2011 -- Proper 19A, 13th After Pentecost

OPENING PRAYER
God of life, as a new season begins, we come with hopes and wonders,
in our time of worship open our eyes to see the world as You see it, open our hearts that Your love may flow through them, open our ears to hear you calling us forward.
And when our worship is ended,
may we go out as people who have been fed in body and spirit, ready to live and serve. Amen

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

When we feel hurt, or threatened, or attacked;

we instinctively want to strike out, to re-pay pain with pain.

When we reach a moment of victory in the struggles of life,

we instinctively want to celebrate, to sing and dance, even if it means rejoicing in the suffering of others.

But, God of Forgiveness, you call us to a different Way.

You call us to offer forgiveness instead of vengeance, to seek justice for all, to forgive not once, but 77 times. And we know that we find this difficult. We know that sometimes this is beyond us.

...time of silent prayer...

God, who calls us to forgive, sets out the model of forgiving. Not once, not even 77 times, but over and over, forever and ever, God sets aside our actions, not holding our faults against us. We are a forgiven people!

Thanks be to God. Amen.