Lord, Have Mercy [a prayer of intercession during a season of chaos]

Encouragement

Mar. 17

O sovereign, good, and gracious God, so many of us do not know what to do in times like this. We feel lost and anxious and sad and fearful. But you are not surprised by disease, and you are not absent in our sorrow. So we come to you in our distress. Calm and quiet our souls as we enter your presence.

Lord, have mercy.

You are the Great Physician, and as such we ask that you will heal those suffering from sickness right now. We pray that you will bring strength to their bodies and joy to their souls. We pray over those with weakened immune systems, those who suffer from other illnesses, those reckoning with all kinds of diagnoses during this uncertain time.

Lord, have mercy.

We ask that you will protect the most vulnerable, those so easily dismissed by others but loved deeply by yourself. We pray over your image-bearers living in jail cells, on streets, or in tents. Be gracious to those who have fled from violence, corruption, or poverty only to be rejected, abused, and ignored. Protect them and keep them. Forgive us for overlooking your children, because we’re too busy looking at ourselves. Help us to see others, to love them, to serve them.

Lord, have mercy.

Guard the elderly. Keep those who can’t have visitors from discouragement and despair. Be their comfort. Be their friend, their brother, their counselor. Oh God, protect our nursing homes, care facilities, and retirement communities. Like the army of angels surrounding Elisha, we ask you to surround these places.

Lord, have mercy.

We ask for wisdom for our leaders, our administration, our governors, and all those making hard decisions in this uncertain time. You promised if we ask for wisdom, you will give it. We plead for the wisdom of Solomon for each person you have put in positions of power and influence.

Lord, have mercy.

We pray for China. We praise you that the spread seems to be lessening there, and we ask that you will erase it for good. We pray over Italy. We pray over the doctors making impossible decisions. Give healing, provide equipment, speed up testing. We pray for our own country and for every nation as the pandemic spreads. Provide every needed treatment, every hospital bed, every ventilator. Give us the grace to work well together, to have the selflessness required to do what needs to be done. We ask for seamless communication between nations, unprecedented collaboration, and compassion for one another so often absent in our world.

Lord, have mercy.

We pray against the racism and xenophobia evident in our country, our leadership, and even ourselves. We pray over our Chinese brothers and sisters who have been unjustly pinned with blame. We pray for our Asian-American friends and for all people of color in our nation for whom the effects of racism have been compounded during this time. We confess that we’ve believed and perpetuated the lie in thought, word, or action that any of your image-bearers is of lesser value than another. Forgive those of us guilty of oppressing others and open our eyes to recognize and change systems of oppressions from which we’ve benefitted. Heal the wounds of racial trauma and grant resilience to those who constantly bear the burden of racism. You, God, so loved the world. Help us to do the same.

Lord, have mercy.

Give guidance and knowledge to every researcher, scientist, and doctor as they treat patients, study, and develop a cure. Protect their bodies as they work to protect ours. If you choose to heal through modern medicine, we ask you to do it quickly, Lord. Or intervene without it. Either way sounds great right about now, God. Please, Jehovah-Rapha, bring healing.

Lord, have mercy.

We pray for every person stuck home in an abusive situation. For the children whose only respite was school, for the partner whose only break from bruises was work. Oh Jesus, protect. Change the hearts and behaviors of the abusers and stand guard over the victims, the powerless, the hurting.

Lord, have mercy.

Provide strength for those struggling with addiction. During a time of stress and boredom, we can so easily turn to bottles or screens or patterns of behavior that only harm us more. Use this time of solitude to free us from the habits that break us. Free us from the evil one who tries to lure us into darkness.

Lord, have mercy.

We grieve for those who have lost income, jobs, customers, livelihoods, and so much more. We pray for the hourly workers without work, the restaurants that sit vacant, the small businesses without clients. We pray for the unemployed whose job search has become more difficult and those whose jobs are now insecure. We pray for the writers, speakers, musicians, artists, event coordinators, and anyone who has had to face the reality that cancellations mean cancelled paychecks. You are our Provider, the one who rained down manna from heaven. Do it again, Yahweh, we beg. Give us bread for today, and help us to trust you for tomorrow’s.

Lord, have mercy.

We ache for those whose bellies hunger every day, who live in food deserts and for whom empty store shelves don’t simply mean they can’t stock up. It means they can’t eat at all. You are a good and generous God. Be generous to them, and help those of us who live in excess to show your generosity. Help us open our hands rather than grasp and hoard. Give us grace to accept our own losses that another might gain a taste of your goodness.

Lord, have mercy.

Change the hearts of those who use this time of chaos and loss to prey on others. Free them from the grasp of greed and selfishness. Free us, Lord God.

Lord, have mercy.

Be near to every parent struggling to teach, work, clean, cook, stay healthy, and juggle life at home in an anxious and overwhelming season. Allow this time with kids and family to be an unexpected gift. Allow school technology to work properly. Help us to be flexible. Give us great joy in the slowness of our days.

Lord, have mercy.

We pray for your Church, O God. We have a chance now more than ever to speak truth and display love to a hurting world. Help us not to squander this opportunity, God. We’ve messed up time and time again, and we’ve led people to believe you’re not as good as you truly are. Forgive us, and move through us now. Grant discernment to our pastors and strength to all your Church, that through this time we may declare your glory, offer your compassion, give of your goodness, work toward justice, and faithfully build your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, have mercy.

We pray in faith that all our efforts, all the closures, all the isolation, though they will appear to some like an overreaction, will yield the intended results. Give us the grace to appreciate any seeming overreaction that tempers greater tragedy.

Lord, have mercy.

Comfort, comfort, for those prone to anxiety. Grant the peace that passes understanding, and help us to bring our requests to you day by day, even minute by minute. You welcome our cares, and so we cast them on you.

Lord, have mercy.

Protect those who struggle with shifts in structure, for those who need help they won’t receive, for those who function best in environments now impossible. Watch over therapists and special education teachers and all those trying to help your children cope from afar.

Lord, have mercy.

Be a companion to the lonely. Watch over the dad separated from his children, the grandfather who cannot have visitors, the mom who works long shifts at the hospital, the friend who lives alone. Watch over the traveler unsure of how to get home and the student scrambling to find a place to go.

Lord, have mercy.

Protect the unborn children, and give peace to expecting parents. When routine appointments and joyful occasions now feel scary and uncertain, we ask that you will calm us. Help us to celebrate new life in the face of death all around. Bringing a child into the world at a time like this is an act of rebellion against the one who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. Cover over every parent and every baby right now.

Lord, have mercy.

Grant joy to those disappointed by the loss of sports seasons, recitals, concerts, championships, graduations, semesters, celebrations, and more. The disappointment runs deep, Jesus, and we pray that you will meet us in it. Help us to see what’s positive, yes, but heal also the wounds of heartbreak that can all too easily infect our souls with bitterness.

Lord, have mercy.

Protect us from the lies of the evil one that say you’re absent, that you’re powerless, that you’re a fraud. Those are lies from the pit of hell, O God, and we ask that you will remind us each day how real and how good you are.

Lord, have mercy.

We need you, O God. We always have needed you, and only now are many of us recognizing the depths of that need. Thank you for sending us to our knees, the place where we should have been all along. Hear our cries.

Lord, have mercy.

There is so much more to ask that we don’t even realize, so much we struggle to even put into words. But you, Spirit, intercede for your people. Do that now, we pray.

Lord, have mercy.

We know that he who has promised is faithful. We believe that you can answer, that you can heal, that you can intervene. Help our unbelief.

Lord, have mercy.

But even if you do not, O God, even if you permit your people to suffer, may it be as a refiner’s fire. And when you have tested us, may we come forth as gold.

Lord, have mercy.

Your kingdom come, your will be done. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.