In every four to five years, my country, Malaysia will go through a process of pruning and selection, just like in agriculture farming, the farmers will choose what to be cut off and what to remain. It is exciting and hot topics in coffee shops and much prayers are said by believers of all faiths.
The coming months are living in suspend, we are to choose new leaders, new representatives for the people from all walks of life and deciding the fate of the nation.
A Prayer for Justice
Lord, may justice flow like a riverReaching barren lands and sun scorched deserts
Where people feel forgotten and hopeless
Let your water of life
Comfort them
Where children lie abandoned or abused
Let your water of life
Protect them
Where communities suffer at the hands of prejudice
Let your water of life
Shield them
Lord, we ask for a mighty downpour from Heaven
May your sons and daughters hear your voice
May we live as you lead us to live
Go as you bid us to go
Serve as you inspire us to serve
Give as you teach us to give
Until the earth is covered with the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea
Amen
(an example of a modern prayer for justice from www.lords-prayer-words.com. This can be prayed with a nation or people group in mind)
A Prayer for the Poor and the Neglected
Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us to forget:
the homeless and the destitute,
the old and the sick,
and all who have none to care for them.
Help us to heal those who are broken in body or spirit,
and to turn their sorrow into joy.
Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for our sake became poor,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(Source: 1979 Book of Common Prayer, Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA)
Read more: http://www.lords-prayer-words.com/i_pray_you_will.html#ixzz4eYokiHXg
Prayer for Peace
The prayer for peace is said daily across the world at twelve noon by people from many different religious beliefs and philosophical persuasions:-
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust;
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace;
Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.
(This simple prayer comes from the Vancover Assembly of the World Council of Churches. It's origins a thought to be from England circa 1981. In the early eighties, Mother Teresa of Calcutta popularised this prayer, and it subsequently became adopted by the Assembly of World Religions meeting in Russia. This event was timed to coincide with the second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament. By the end of the decade, the Berlin Wall had crumbled and the "Cold War", if not completely over, was certainly no longer the dark shadow across the world that it once was. However, with the turn of the millenium, and "9/11", the world was to face new challanges and new wars. Hence this prayer is as relevant today as it was when it was first prayed almost thirty years ago).
Read more: http://www.lords-prayer-words.com/i_pray_you_will.html#ixzz4eYpVhsec
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