Lord, in the past, when we’ve waved goodbye to friends and family as they got into their car or boarded a train or airplane, going back to where they now call home, we’ve trusted that we would see them again. Perhaps next Christmas, next summer, next major birthday, next big family occasion. We never questioned the certainty that comes with the freedom to travel.
But as we navigate these uncertain waters that certainty is gone. Parents, children, siblings, friends, separated by closed borders, seas and oceans, are left wondering when they might see each other again. Our goodbyes as we finish our conversations over the Internet or the phone, once casual, are now perhaps tinged with fear.
Fear and anxiety feed off this uncertainty. Our minds take us to places we’d rather not go. Give us strength, Lord, to stay strong in the face of this uncertainty and to place our fears and anxiety into your hands.
Reading: Philippians 1 3:11
I thank my God whenever I think of you, and every time I pray for you all, I always pray with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the very first day up to the present. I am quite confident that the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes. It is only right that I should feel like this towards you all, because you have a place in my heart, since you have all shared together in the grace that has been mine, both my chains and my work defending and establishing the gospel. For God will testify for me how much I long for you all with the warm longing of Christ Jesus; it is my prayer that your love for one another may grow more and more with the knowledge and complete understanding that will help you to come to true discernment, so that you will be innocent and free of any trace of guilt when the Day of Christ comes, entirely filled with the fruits of uprightness through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.
Oh Lord, give me the courage and the words to tell those dearest to me how much they mean to me.
Other prayer guides:
- For healthcare workers
- For people alone in isolation
- For loved ones who are far away
- For families – that they can deal with the increased stress of confinement
- For leaders of states, countries and communities
- For those working in the food industry
- For those who are grieving over loved ones lost to this epidemic
- For wisdom for scientists and experts who are researching ways to deal with this epidemic.