We are trusting that 2021 will usher in a season of healing. Watching for signs of light that break through the darkness, we give thanks that vaccines have been approved and are being distributed amongst our most vulnerable and front-line workers.
Let us pray:
Loving and compassionate God,
Lord of all health and wholeness,
we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Thank you for your miracle of healing.
You gift our bodies with incredible means of protection and repair,
immune systems that shield and heal us,
wounds that heal, bones that knit, tissues that repair themselves.
Thank you for your miracle of healing.
You gift our world with plants and herbs that cure our diseases.
They provide our medicines and pain killers,
They form the basis of our antibiotics and antiseptics.
Thank you for your miracle of healing.
You gift us with the wonder of preventative health.
Masks that protect us and others from infection.
Water and soap to cleanse our hands and the surfaces we touch.
Thank you for your miracle of healing.
You gift us with the power to reconcile and be reconciled.
Ways to bridge bridges and not walls,
Ways to listen and learn and seek forgiveness for the wounds we have inflicted.
Thank you for your miracle of healing.
(pause as you bring to mind times when you have experienced God’s healing presence.)
Scripture readings: choose from the following:
Psalm 139, Exodus 1: 22-27, Matthew 8: 14-17, James 5: 13-16.
This Sunday’s worship text is Mark 1: 21-28
(pause to pray for those who are in need of healing.)
God of health, God of wholeness, God of love,
Heal our bodies, Heal our souls, Heal our spirits, Heal our world.
May we embrace this week knowing we are touched by the God who heals. Amen
(this prayer was adapted from a resource from godspacelight.com)