Prayers for Charleston

"This is what the Lord says:

A voice is heard in Ramah,

mourning and great weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more."

(Jeremiah 31:15)

     I pray that I never have to experience the kind of pain the families at the Emmanuel AME church and others in Charleston, SC are facing right now.  Please pray for the families of these precious people; the husbands and wives who have lost their spouses, the parents who have lost their children, the children who have lost their parents and grandparents; brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, who will be missed by so many.
     I don’t have any good, soothing answers for what happened.  Our world is broken and messed up. But what I can share with you is the hope that we have in Christ. The hope that Jesus is coming again, and that evil will be destroyed, pain and sadness and grief will end, and all things will be made new.

     I am amazed at the courage and faith of those families who extended forgiveness and mercy through their pain.  They did not use the distinctions of this world to divide, but rather the name of Christ to unite.  They are the face of Jesus that I hope I can be, that we all can be.

Lord God, we mourn as a nation and we mourn as individuals. We are deeply saddened. We are fearful. We are grieving for families we do not know. We are angry. But most of all, we are confused.  Please Father, be with these families and give them a peace that passes understanding.

In Christ, Amen.