Today in our prayers for the people of Myanmar.

Prayer for Peace

Scott Liston

On this day, Lord, we come with one accord. We realize how wonderful is our opportunity to share our feelings about peace with you. These feelings are mixed with concerns. They are surrounded with hopes and desires.

Within ourselves we admit we stand before you in ignorance of what peace is. The peace we understand is what we sense is nearby. Yet we know that peace is not just for us. It is for all creation and that peace is not out of our reach or sight.

We would like to raise our voices and “Shout the Tidings of Salvation” to those who have never heard before. We would like to stretch our arms to include those who know not your kingdom. We want to make our hearts so large that we will give more of ourselves, to follow the example of sacrifice set by your son.

O, Lord, if we cry out “Peace!” let not the words be wasted in the winds of war, to be wafted about among the machines of destruction. May words of peace be picked out of those winds by people beating their machines of war into plowshares that will produce the whitened fields ready for harvest.

Give us wisdom to discern how to enlarge our capabilities to reach out to those who are hungering after righteousness. If some do not know what it means to have this kind of hunger, then Lord, let them have peace. Let them know peace. Let them know we desire to be peacemakers. Then bless them with a righteous desire to be peacemakers.

Oh God, hear our prayer. Let there be peace! Amen!