In a world that offers reasons to despair,
In a time of confusion and fear,
We turn our hearts to you,
God, our Strength and our Redeemer.

In our world, power seems distant and remote
and the interests of the weak are often overlooked.
Certainly, it seems, one person-or one small church-
cannot make a difference,
cannot right all the wrongs we see around us.

And yet, you have called us-
Called us out into the world
to give an accounting of our faith;
Called us into the streets
to proclaim your mercies
and announce your kingdom;
Called us into relationships
to heal what is broken
and restore hope to the hopeless;
Called us to speak your Gospel
and live your Good News,
to bring justice to a world that needs to believe;
Called us your friends, the beloved of God.
Empower us, then, O God,
to do the things that make for peace.
Let our witness make faith seem stronger than pipe bombs
and peace more compelling than tanks and suicide bombers.

We follow the war-maker out of fear,
figuring which end of a gun barrel we'd rather be on.
But we are drawn to the peacemakers
because of the vision they bring,
the world they make vivid before our eyes,
the healing we feel when that world is made real.

You are our peacemaker, O Jesus.
You are our vision.
Make us worthy of it.
And let us share the privilege
of joining hand to hand,
voice to voice, heart to heart,
in the forming of your kingdom.
Let your love prevail.
And let it begin in us.

This is our prayer.
Amen.

Richard Moore is youth minister for University Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. This prayer first appeared in the summer 2002 issue of Baptist Peacemaker, journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, and is reprinted with permission.