Today in our prayers, we remember the people of Mauritania.

Prayer for Peace

Kent Parker

Hello, God:

It’s us again. I know, we seem to come running to you all the time, and it’s usually for the most trivial things. We are late to work, our car won’t start, or perhaps money is tight. But God, as your children, we know you are not our banker, time clock, or mechanic. We look around ourselves at this planet and its teeming millions, and suddenly, you have become even more significant than we had ever suspected.

And just as suddenly, our eyes open to the world and the burgeoning miracle of creation that it is, with its millions of inhabitants and its oceans and landmasses pulsing with life and promise. What a glorious world you have given us, O God. We are not worthy of your grace, yet you give it freely.

We pray for your forgiveness for wasting the planet’s resources. But more than that, Lord, we ask your forgiveness for our wasteful actions and attitudes toward peace, a hallmark of your love. We are so very aware that you have bequeathed that peace-filled legacy to us as your children, and yet we spend that legacy so carelessly on fruitless squabbling for lesser goals.

Guide our feet to higher ground, Lord, so that we may be agents of your peace in a world sequestered and parted by walls of hatred and misunderstanding. Empower us, we pray, to use the gift of your peace to assist all peoples to know that there is a better way than what has gone before. Let us shake off the human history of conflict and battle for the mantle of your blessed peace, O God.

We pray these things in the name of the ultimate agent of peace, even Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Tags: prayer, peace, december, daily, mauritania