Prayer During COVID-19
During these difficult days, members of the Commonwealth West District of the New England Conference shared a daily prayer based on the Revised Common Lectionary for the week. The following is a prayer from Rev. Jinyong Choi, head pastor at North Boston Korean United Methodist Church.
Bible Passage: Genesis 28:10-19
God of hope, you opened the gate of heaven for Jacob, a fugitive, deceiver, and goal-driven man. Fueled by his desires for a better life, he chose a life of turmoil and dishonest. We imagine his night in the desert, which was mixed by hope and fear, light and darkness, assurance and uncertainty, pride and shame, and belief and doubt. Certainly, he achieved something, something important, tangible and promising. But, at the same time, he lost something valuable: integrity, relationship, accountability, and brotherhood.
God of uplifting hope, you sent him an angel in the night of mixed possibilities. You lifted him up to the ladder of transformation. You lifted him up to the gate of heaven from the land of earthly desires. Clothed in a new sense of hope, he found YOU at the gate of new possibilities. You opened a much bigger path for Jacob than he desired: ‘he shall be the blessings for the families of the earth.’
God of ever-present hope, be present in our world of wanting, of aspiring, and of craving. In the midst of need for our shared efforts to climb the hill of pandemic, racial injustice, grieving, and suffering, we struggle to find the gate of possibilities and hope. Oh Lord, you are perfect, but we are not: you are loving and gracious, but we are self-centered and narrow-minded; you are empathetic and compassionate, but we are careless and insensible. God of healing and compassionate love, come near us and bind us together in constructing the foundation for a healthy and embracing community full of peace, love, and care in this desert of human sufferings. We have spent the night of mixed possibilities like Jacob. Lift us up on the ladder of hope and salvation, so that we can glimpse the light of new possibilities. Help and guide us to be the blessings for all the families of the earth. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
