Prayers of the People: An Enduring Hope

Here’s a prayer of intercession from written by Rev. Richard J. Fairchild’s Kir-shalom website.

Prayer of Intercession
(inspired by Romans 5:1-5; 13:11-14)

We thank you, O God, that you have given us an enduring hope—one which cannot disappoint us or mislead us.  We thank you, that through our faith in you and in your Son Jesus Christ, you enter into every believing heart and make new lives that have been torn asunder by the darkness of this
world...
Lord, hear our prayer.....

We pray today O God that those believers who are asleep may awake and know that salvation is nearer now than when they first believed.  Help them, and us, to lay aside the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light that you bestow upon those who actively seek you day by day.  Grant that their faith and ours may be fully alive....  
Lord, hear our prayer.....

We ask today, O God, for those who have lost hope and for those who have never had it.  Grant to us and to those we lift before you in our hearts a new and abiding vision of what have you have done, and what you are doing, and what you will do, to save and redeem your people and indeed the creation itself.  Grant, O God, that all might see and believe and discover their purpose and the purpose of all that is and all that is yet to be....
Lord, hear our prayer.....

We lift before you, O God, those persons and those places named in our sharing time (bidding prayer)…. 
Lord, hear our prayer.....

We ask all this of you, O God, knowing that you are our hope and our salvation, a very present help in times of trouble, and the One whose purpose is to grant and new and abundant life to us and our world.  Praise be to your name.  Amen.

~ written by Rev. Richard J. Fairchild, and posted on Kir-shalom. http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/a-ad01smsn.php