Prayers We Keep Praying: How Long?
It’s been 251 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2019 so far…
Lord, “We don’t know what we should pray.” We “wait breathless”, we feel weak and frustrated at all the suffering — and don’t know how to give expression to our inner groaning. [1]
Lord we asked you to “teach us to pray” and you said:
“Don’t pour out a flood of empty words…” [2]
So Lord, we pray like the Psalmists and Prophets did:
“How long oh, Lord!? How long will the wicked win?…They crush your own people, Lord! They abuse your very own possession. They kill widows and immigrants.” [3]
“Lord, aren’t you ancient, my God, my holy one? Don’t let us die.” [4]
We see what is happening in our nation, and wonder:
“How can we comfort you…Your hurt is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?…All your enemies open wide their mouths against you…Should priest and prophet be killed in my Lord’s own sanctuary? Young and old alike lie on the ground in the streets.”
“Don’t relax at all; don’t rest your eyes for a moment.” [5]
“Is this nothing to all you who pass by? Look around: Is there any suffering like the suffering inflicted” on our brothers and sisters? [6]
We join the cry of lament:
“Lord, how long will people call for help and you not listen?
We cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you don’t deliver us.”
“There is strife, and conflict abounds. Instruction is ineffective.
Justice does not endure
because the wicked surround the righteous.
Justice becomes warped.” [7]
“Lord, look at their suffering…Lord, look and take notice…Pay attention, Lord, for we are in trouble. My stomach is churning; my heart is pounding inside me because I am so bitter. In the streets the sword kills…our groans are many, our hearts are sick.” [8]
We recognize the pain:
“Tears run down like a flood all day and night…There is no relief until the Lord looks down from the heavens and notices. Our eyes hurt us because of what’s happened to [the] city’s daughters.”
“We call on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit. Hear our voices. Don’t close your ear to the need for relief, to our cries for help.” [9]
For our brothers and sisters we beg:
“Our Lord! Plead their desperate case; redeem their lives. Lord, look at their mistreatment; judge their cause. Look at all of their enemies’ vengeance, all of their scheming…Hear their jeering, Lord…the speech of those who rise up against them, the incessant gossiping…” [10]
As we consider this tragedy and the state of our nation, Lord have mercy:
“Consider what has become of us; take notice of our disgrace. Look at it!” [11]
“Our eyes continually failed, looking for some help, but for nothing.
From our watchtower we watched for a nation that doesn’t save.” [12]
Lord our hope and salvation is found only in you: [13]
“We must search and examine our ways; we must return to the Lord.”
Lord, when we have “forgotten what is good” when we’ve “thought: Our future is gone, as well as our hope from the Lord.”
When “The memory of suffering and homelessness is bitterness and poison.”
Help us “call all this to mind—Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through! They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” [14]
“Return us, Lord, to yourself. Please let us return!
Give us new days.” [15]
Inspire hope in us:
“Lord, we have heard your reputation.
we have seen your work.
Over time, revive it.
Over time, make it known.”
“While we wait for the day of distress to come against the people who attack us…We will rejoice in the God of our deliverance. The Lord God is our strength.” [16]
As Jesus taught us, we “pray like this:
Our Father who is in heaven,
uphold the holiness of your name.
Bring in your kingdom
so that your will is done on earth as it’s done in heaven.
Give us the bread we need for today.
Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you,
just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.
And don’t lead us into temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.” [17]
Amen
*I first published this string of prayers in 2015 after Charleston. I keep revisiting them and changing the name. Selah.
All selections are taken from the Common English Bible
[1] Romans 8
[2] Matthew 6
[3] Psalm 94
[4] Habakkuk 1
[5] Lamentations 2
[6] Lamentations 1
[7] Habakkuk 1
[8] Lamentations 2
[9] Lamentations 3
[10] Lamentations 3
[11] Lamentations 5
[12] Lamentations 4
[13] Psalm 18
[14] Lamentations 3
[15] Lamentations 5
[16] Habakkuk 3
[17] Matthew 6, Luke 11
