These prayers of intercession are based on Psalm 13. The congregation, and/or a reader, say the words of the psalm, and then a second person prays to expand the sentiment to others who might be experiencing similar things to the psalmist. The themes helpfully touch on some more difficult subjects which we might otherwise find hard to engage with prayerfully. The PowerPoint presents the words of the Psalm for the congregation to say, with fitting images.


Extract from the prayer:

Reader 1 / congregation:

How long, Lord? Will you forget me for ever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

Reader 2:

We pray for those who feel forgotten and unseen, may they know that they are remembered and seen by you God.

Help us to partner with you to remember the forgotten.

Search our hearts to reveal those we hide our faces from, the outcast, the stranger or the homeless. Change our hearts, that we may turn our faces towards these people and see them as your beloved children.

Reader 1 / congregation:

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Reader 2:

We pray for those we know who struggle with mental illnesses, anxiety and depression. We pray that there will be resources released to help, enough staff employed and finances given towards mental health services nationally. Help us to be a friend and a listening ear to those who suffer. Fill us with compassion and wisdom.

Ultimately, we pray for those who wrestle with sorrow, that they may know your victory over those dark thoughts which currently seem to triumph.

Reader 1 / congregation:

Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, 'I have overcome him,'
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

Reader 2:

We pray for those who might be considered fallen by those around them: may they know your restoration and grace. Help us to not judge or exclude your beloved children, but instead lift them up in prayer, and embrace them with the grace we know in Christ.

Thank you, loving Father God, for hearing our prayer.
We proclaim together:

All:

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord's praise,
for he has been good to me.


To download the prayer orPowerPoint, sign in or sign up, and click on the links above/right.