Sunday Prayers: Deuteronomy 30:11–20

Moses’ valedictory message, and a call to flourishing and friendship

Call to Worship

One: We are choosing this morning to come together to worship.
All: In worship, we remember and give thanks for God’s presence in the world.
One: We are choosing this morning to come together to pray.
All: Through prayer, we ask for God’s help in our lives and remember his promise to hear our hopes and cries.
One: We are choosing this morning to come together to follow.
All: Through faith, we affirm the care God has for us, and his loving guidance leading us forward.

Opening Prayer

Caring God,
As we journey through our lives filled with blessings and adversity, guide us to choose the life you would have us lead. Strengthen us to follow you with courage, so that our choices bring us closer to you and turn us away from thoughts of selfishness and greed. Encourage us to follow you with commitment, that through each day we might live your teachings and deepen our faith. Nurture us to follow you with compassion, seeing the world around us as you do, and loving others as you love and support us. Amen.

Offering Prayer

One: Ever-faithful God, You lead us through the wilderness of this world, and promise to care for and sustain us.
All: In faith, let us worship you with praise and thanksgiving.
One: You are with us when we face hardships.
All: Bless our offering and our service, that we might help others in their times of need.
One: You are with us, even when we turn away from you.
All: Magnify our offering and our service, that others may come to know your redeeming love.
One: You are with us when we seek to start over.
All: Accept our offering and our service, that through these acts of faith we might renew our hearts, our souls and the world you have entrusted to us. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

One: Eternal God, Be in our hearts and our minds and our souls, as we struggle with the challenges of this world.
All: Help us to love you more deeply and follow you more closely that our lives may be blessed by your peace.
One: Be in our hearts, and reassure those overwhelmed by increasing costs or a loss of income. Support us to care for each other and to find new ways to make ends meet. Be in our minds, especially for those of us struggling with pressure at work or school. Guide us to trust in your commitment to us, and to find purpose in the problems we face. Be in our souls, and comfort those troubled by ill health. Sustain us with your peace and healing.
All: Help us to love you more deeply and follow you more closely that our lives may be blessed by your peace.
One: Be in our hearts and our minds and our souls, and help us appreciate the blessings of this world.
All: Help us to love you more deeply and follow you more closely that our lives may be blessed by your peace.
One: Be in our hearts, and help us love and care for those around us. Be in our minds, to remember you in our joy and celebration. Be in our souls, to see you at work in the world, in the everyday miracles of our lives.
All: Help us to love you more deeply and follow you more closely that our lives may be blessed by your peace.
One: Be in our words and our thoughts and our actions, that in every day our choices bring us closer to the life you want for us and the communities we grow in.
All: Help us to love you more deeply and follow you more closely that our lives may be blessed by your peace.
Amen

Benediction

Go into this new week and choose life. Choose a life of connection and caring, to shine the light of God’s love into the world. Choose a life of praise and worship, renewed each day to find God in your ordinary moments. And choose a life of faith and prayer, that your hearts and minds may know God’s peace. Amen.