Monthly Prayer Petition | February 2024

Compassionate God of our weary years, comforting God of our silent tears, we come to you during a special month commemorating our nation’s history; reaffirming Black Lives Matter as we should throughout the year. As we prepare for our time of contemplation, we acknowledge we act at times as if some lives didn’t matter in the past, implying that their lives and feelings don’t matter in the present. Guide us as we reflect on Langston Hughes’ powerful images in his poetry of a dream deferred, drying like raisin in the sun, sagging like a heavy load. 

As James Baldwin noted, history gives us “our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.” Help us overcome pain as we truly assess our history which has placed us where we are as it has placed others where they are, aware of perceptions that lead us from the path of righteousness. 

Using the words of James Weldon Johnson, let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies as we sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, a song full of the hope that the present now has brought us. May we forever stand true to our God, loving and caring for our neighbors.

 Lord In Your Mercy.

C: Hear Our Prayer