Lord God of heaven. We come before You today with heavy and weighted down hearts. We have seen the destruction. We have seen the death. We have seen the chaos. We have seen hatred. We have seen violence. We have seen vicious clashes between various ethnic groups. We have seen the darkened hearts of humanity pour out.
Today we come before You recognizing that we need you. We need Your aid. We need Your grace. Our State, our Nation, and our world needs Your common grace.
Teach us, O God, to find our strength in You. Teach us to find our pathway of righteousness in Your Holy Word. Teach us to find grace and peace from You.
Gracious Father, we ask for Your mercy. We ask it for our elected officials. Over the last few days they have faced serious and grave difficulties and will face more in the coming days. Give them wisdom. Give them guidance from on high. Give them the strength needed to protect the citizens that are under their care.
We ask for mercy for law enforcement personal and the National Guard who are seeking to protect our State and our Nation. Give them wisdom as well. They will be faced with trials that will press them to want to lash out. Help them know when to show force and when to show restraint. Protect them. Strengthen them.
We ask for mercy for the people affected by these sorrows. We know that there are sins that take place with regard to people’s ethnicity and skin color. How evil it has always been and is whenever these things occur. For our bearing of Your Image is not based upon the pigment in our skin or the nation of our birth. Give us mercy for our failings in these areas.
We ask for mercy for the business people who have lost much over these last days. Many will have lost much of their life’s work in a moment. Give them strength and resilience. Give them hope.
We ask for mercy for the families who have seen their homes looted and destroyed. Give them neighbors, and friends, and communities to uphold them and uplift them. Give them their daily bread. For right now, they may need just that.
We ask for mercy for us. For we are caught in a world torn by sin. We need wisdom, we need help, we need guidance, and we need aid from You to know how to respond, how to help, and how to be people of peace.
We also ask for justice to be done. We certainly ask that for today. But we plead for Your Son Jesus to come. We long to see the peace that He will bring. We long for Him to rule with his gracious and firm rod of iron. We need Jesus. We need His righteousness. And so we say to You our Father – “send Him soon”. We say to Jesus, “come, and come quickly.”
We praise You that in the midst of these evil days that we have the hope of Jesus Christ. We know that our sins which are many are forgiven. We know that our failures are washed away. We know we have real peace with You and that we have a place secured in the coming kingdom of peace. Teach us to strengthen our hope in these things.
In Jesus Name