National Day of Prayer
National Day of Prayer Dear God of the fatherless, the one who hears all cries, who sees all suffering, whose heart fills the entire world. We bow before you. From one end of the land to the other, we come to you in prayer believing in you. We confess that we believe you are the one true and living God. We believe you are alive. We believe you care. We believe you act. We come to you on behalf of suffering children: The child who at this moment is suffering abuse. The children who are hungry right now. The little boys who have no place to call home. The little girls who do not know where they will sleep tonight. We are grieved to our hearts at the situation many children are in. We grieve over uncaring parents, isolated families, dysfunctional adults, congregations that refuse to help, Christians who turn the other way. We pray for the children that our in our care including the teen with drug problem, the 10 year old with attachment disorder, the siblings that can’t get along, the problem in one of the residences, the foster child that is not adjusting and the child caught in the court system We pray that you will intercede in the lives of the infants that come our way that they can be in a stable home, with the elementary aged children who need stability and joy and with the teens who desire to be loved and accepted We confess to you that we often turn away because we can’t bear any more pain. We often become angry when others don’t seem to care, when the money is tight, when our plans don’t work. We often get discouraged when our work is so hard, challenges so great, pain so deep. We often want to quit, move on or complain. We submit all this to you. We know we can’t solve all these problems ourselves. Forgive us when we try to work without you. We know that you are working, doing more than we can see. We trust all this to you, Oh God of the fatherless, who knows our hearts and hears our cries. We put it all in your hands. We trust you and your Son and the Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of Jesus, Amen The prayer was written by Harold Shank