Prayer for Us to be Proactive Regarding Climate Change
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth."—Genesis 1:1(NIV)
The first creation story begins with ruach, the very breath of God, moving across the face of the earth. In the second story, God forms the human from the adamah, the earth, and breathes God’s own breath into the human.
The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling: Global Temperatures are rising, the ocean waters are warming, the ice sheets are shrinking, the glaciers are retreating, the snow cover is decreasing, the sea levels are rising, the Arctic Sea Ice is declining, extreme weather events are increasing with intense rainfall events occurring around the world and the acidity in the ocean is increasing. This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the ocean.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.—Matthew 25:35 (NIV)
In many parts of our beloved world, we are now gasping for clean air. Next to air, water is our most essential necessity. In the metropolitan areas of the world, some of us are blessed to have abundant, clean water to drink and use for cooking, growing food, washing clothes, and flushing toilets. We seldom worry that the water we drink could make us sick — or even kill us.
In other parts of the world, hundreds of millions of people don’t share this blessing. Every year we recognize this reality with the United Nations’ World Water Day on March 22. This is a day to champion the rights of people everywhere to have access to affordable, safe, and convenient drinking water.
Almighty God,
Help us to end the wasteful habits we may have formed.
Help us to end the desecration of your (God's) creation.
Help us to provide equal access to the fruits of creation, so they can be shared equally among all people, all communities and all nations and may we find sustenance in the fruits of the earth and the water you have given to us. Trusting in your bounty, we shall all have enough.
May you rain your tears over us to extinguish the destructive fires!
May you breathe on us to clear away the smoke and pollutants that poison our bodies!
May you animate us to become good stewards of all that you place in our care, of Mother earth, to be lovers of one another, and to be the doers and show-ers of grace, mercy, peace, love, and justice you created us to be.
Thank you for the abundance of blessings that you provide to us daily. Forgive us oh God when we fall short of our goals to care for Mother earth, to care for each other, or to care for our relationship with you!
These things we ask in your many names and in the name of Jesus, the Christ of God! May it be so! Ashé, A’ho, and Amen
Call to Action for Climate Change
