A Veteran's Day Prayer
A Prayer for Veteran's Day
as shared in worship at our Lakewood Ranch Campus by Rev. Steve Price on November 8, 2015.
Gracious and Merciful God, we pray today for our nation’s veterans.
Generation after generation, young men and women have responded to a call to serve this country and their lives have been changed forever. We acknowledge their willingness to sacrifice for the sake of others.
We lift up all who have served, whether in peacetime or in conflict. Today we especially remember those who have been tempered by fire, those who continue to bear wounds of the body or the spirit as a result of what they endured.
Some lie in our veterans’ hospitals; others struggle for recovery in rehabilitation centers; still others, with their spouses, and their children, experience brokenness in the aftermath of what they faced; they suffer from post-traumatic stress and survivor’s guilt; they yearn for peace in their souls.
Dear God, we pray to you for healing of their wounds, to banish whatever inner demons may haunt them, and to give them peace within so they may return fully to their families and to society.
We are grateful, God, that you hold all of these men and women in your love. And ask what we might do to offer our own compassion and care. May we be mindful of what our country has asked of them and what they have given in return. Help us to give all of them the respect and honor they are due as human beings created in your image.
Meanwhile, strengthen our resolve to participate in ushering in your kingdom, where pruning hooks are fashioned into plowshares, where we learn to love not only our friends, but also our enemies, and where war will be pursued no more.
All this we pray in the name of Jesus, our Prince of Peace. Amen.