A Prayer as the Storm Approaches

Today I am remembering beautiful North Carolina, where my husband and I lived for three years (at Camp Lejeune, during our USMC days), of Virginia and of Washington, DC (two other places where we have lived, worshipped, made friends, and raised children).  My thoughts are with you, Rev Gals and Pals (and others) on the USA's east coast.

Creator God of earth and sea and sky, we pray together today for those who are preparing their homes and business for the storm ahead.  We pray for endurance and strength and help when needed. 
We pray for those who are on the roads heading inland--some alone and some with a spouse or partner, with children, with beloved pets. We pray for calm and care on the highways. 
We pray for those who are trying to make critical decisions to have wisdom. 
We pray for police officers, firefighters, ambulance crews, medical personnel and others in positions of authority to be caring, cautious and wise as well.
We pray for those preparing shelter spaces, and we pray for those who may occupy those spaces.
We pray for pregnant women who are soon to deliver.
We pray for others who may fear an approaching need for help they may have trouble accessing
We pray for what is good in the human spirit to rise and for ignoble desires to shrink.
We pray, as always for your will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Amen

Intercessory Prayer

by Donna Rathert

"Catherine of Siena stands as the classic example of the renewing power of intercessory prayer. She discovered that when her interior prayer was dry, if she held others in the light of God, her own heart was warmed and her spirit took fire." (67)

Freer, Harold Wiley and Hall, Francis B. Two or Three Together: A Manual for Prayer Groups. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1945.

On Intercessory Prayer

Simply to stand still before God on behalf of anyother is ultimately a passive stance, even though Scripture shows us that action and energy are also called for. This is a prayer of trust, of enormous faithfulness, of simply "hanging in." I don't know what intercessory prayer does, or how it does it -- but it does. -- Margaret Guenther, Toward Holy Ground