7 Prayers That Work

  Heavenly Father, My heart is grieved at the loss of life in this recent school shooting.  I pray for your Spirit to comfort the families of the four high school students who needlessly lost their lives this week in Oxford, Michigan. I ask for your power of conviction and repentance to fall on Ethan Crumbly, whose soul and mind must surely be under evil influence. I pray for him to find you. I pray for his mental health and the mental health of America's children. I pray for school authorities to make mental health a priority in dealing with students, parents, and teachers. I pray for Ethan's parents , who have also been arrested. Lord, speak to them during this time about who you are and how they need you. I pray that the truth of their involvement will be discovered.  While the country and the town of Oxford is grieving and angry, Lord, I pray that hatred and retaliation don't take over. Give justice to these grief-stricken families and wisdom to the authorities. I ask...

Oh. Lord, There's been another mass shooting. I can't imagine how your heart hurts to see your creation turn on itself. End the violence in our country. I intercede, Lord, for the victims and the victimizers that live in this country and call themselves Americans. I am sick of the violence, shamed by it, grieved by it, astonished by the normalization of mass shootings. We have blood on our hands. We may not have personally committed these atrocities, but many times we have shaken our heads, cast judgment, and gone about our day anyway. Lord, show each of us how we can help change this problem. Massage our hearts toward compassion, justice, and care. Give us discernment about the gun-violence problem, the sin-problem, and the mental-health problem that must be addressed and corrected. We are a country--and a world--filled with desperate people  who cannot find a way to solve their own heart and mind issues except to lash out against one another. We gossip, we malign, we injure, ...

Below is a blogpost on Guideposts, by my friend Bob Hostetler. He writes extensively about prayer, and uses laments on his prayer blog to show his readership how to call out to God when times are terrible. Last week proved yet another example of when and how to lament. I've copied his blog below, as well as the source material. AFTER OREGON'S TRAGEDY, PRAY THE PRAYER OF TEARS by Bob Hostetler Another shooting happened last week at a community college in Oregon. Nine innocent people died, adding to our collective sense of grief and frustration. Since then, of course, airwaves and the internet have been filled with anger and argument, outcries and opinions of all kinds. Such things are understandable. They can even be healthy. Though few people—if any—would suggest that prayers alone are sufficient at such a time, prayer is critical. And particularly the prayer of tears. The psalmist David cried out: Hear my prayer, LORD, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to m...