Prayer: addicted to our dishonest scales

Lord, teach us how to pray, and help us to pray now.

The words of Micah 6 are hard to hear.

I walk past two people sleeping in the walkway by Waitrose and I try not to think about what part I have to play in the cause. Who removed them from the place they were staying?

We hide our eyes from the violence we participate in.

I hear about people in Afghanistan who are being rounded up, or just don't have enough to eat, and I don't stop to wonder what makes those people worth less than me.

We are so addicted to our dishonest scales that we can't imagine how to run our world a different way.

I see our world being destroyed, what we store up not being enough, as deserts take over forests and farmland, and I don't ask what sins are ruining us.

We beg you to be allowed a harvest. We beg for the empty stomachs to be filled. We confess the sin that puts us in this position, and we confess our total lack of vision for how to repent. Give us new vision.

We think we know you don't give up on us. We want to believe you won't leave us without hope. We try to trust that you are still here, still involved, still see value in each of us, even when we face up to our sin.

Lord, surround us with your love. We pray for the people we know who are sick, and mourning for people who have died. We pray for everyone who is isolated right now, including many of us here today. We ask you to help us move closer together after being separated for the last couple of years: where we have forgotten, teach us how to encourage each other, help each other, challenge each other.

Lord, if we're going to face this sin and learn how to repent, we need to do it together.

The fact that you're still here, still saying this to us, thousands of years after you said it to Israel helps us believe you won't give up on us, helps us understand we're not the first and we won't be the last, helps us trust we're not lost and you can still save.

We want to turn around, but we still don't know how. We're running out of time and we're lost without you.