GREETING (Adapted from Isaiah 52:7)
How beautiful upon the mountains, O God,
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
HYMN 263 “When Jesus the Healer Passed Through Galilee”
PSALM 116
PRAYER
(Think back to the beginning of this day. Start there, and mentally walk through the day again, while you thank God for the day's blessings and God's continuous work of love. Confess and repent of those times when you forgot, ignored or rebelled against God. Continue to pray with your personal prayer list.)
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
Author of Life and Greatest of Physicians, you sent Jesus to heal and to save.
We still need your Son, Great Healer. We are wounded, sick and troubled by death.
Jesus healed a woman in the crowd, who dared to reach out and touch his robe.
Today we reach out to your Son to touch his heart that our afflictions may be healed.
(Pause to name your own health problems that need healing.)
Jesus healed a lame man whose believing friends lowered him through a roof.
We too believe in your healing, take it to our suffering friends and family members.
(Pause to name people you know who need healing.)
Jesus healed people with leprosy and the other terrible diseases of his time.
Heal us of cancer, heart problems, Alzheimer’s and the other diseases that plague us.
Jesus cast out peoples’ demons, and sent a legion of them into a herd of pigs.
Let him cast out the addictions and mental illnesses that afflict so many people today.
Jesus forgave a crippled man, and the man picked up his bed and walked.
Let Jesus forgive us of our sins and heal the guilt that cripples our souls and lives.
On the cross, Jesus gave his life and healed our relationship with you, God.
Let his forgiveness continue to heal the breaks caused by our unrelenting sinfulness.
From death, Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter, and a widow’s son, and Lazarus.
Raise us from our deaths, and unite us with Christ to live in your company forever.
Then let our voices join the countless throng you have saved for eternal life,
and let our thanksgivings echo throughout the vast and venerable reaches of heaven.
Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 264 “Silence, Frenzied, Unclean Spirit”
CLOSING PRAYER
You, God, are the very essence of love and grace,
and tonight as we approach our beds for needed sleep,
we turn over all our concerns to your compassionate heart.
Wrap our families and friends in your protection.
Guard those whose paths we have crossed today,
and our neighbors: known and unknown, near and far.
Heal those with diseases, wounds and afflictions;
those boiling with deep troubles inside themselves;
and those cursed with bad decisions and crippling habits.
Bring good news to the people suffering in wars;
those impoverished by ignorance or sick economies;
and those living under the burden of earth’s pollution.
Take all your people into your arms tonight, Lord.
Comfort them with your steadfast and faithful love.
Let them find rest and hope tonight in your tender care. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
