Prayer 24
Worship
Prayers for the Age of Technology
Object:
Dear Merciful Judge And Loving Father:
As you no doubt have noted, we humans, in this recent period of positivistic awareness, are deciding that our morals and values are of our own making and choosing. Always before, the assumption has been that they were givens, that you were to be credited or blamed for them. Conformity had resulted from unthinking, child-like obedience, or from fear of your supernatural power and judgment.
Now there is much uncertainty and disorientation. Many individuals are feeling released from supernatural sanctions and are running free. Their flaunting of long-standing moral codes and values is threatening the welfare of us all. Though you may not have been directly responsible for these traditional signposts and guidelines, they were the most inspired ones available. They had long been the foundation of stability and order in society. Thoughtless disregard of them poses the possibility of social chaos.
Help us to understand, and know how to deal with, this unprecedented change and the problems it is producing. Share with us at least a glimpse of your long-range view: what you are thinking, and working toward, in this disturbed and stressful era.
Are we humans becoming a hopeless basket case, going to hell on a rocket?
Or are we moving toward greater maturity, freedom, and assumption of responsibility? Are the present intimations of impending chaos merely evidence that we are in a period of transition to a new stage of development in your plan for us?
Dear God, grant that this may be so. Give us the will and faith to help make it so.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
As you no doubt have noted, we humans, in this recent period of positivistic awareness, are deciding that our morals and values are of our own making and choosing. Always before, the assumption has been that they were givens, that you were to be credited or blamed for them. Conformity had resulted from unthinking, child-like obedience, or from fear of your supernatural power and judgment.
Now there is much uncertainty and disorientation. Many individuals are feeling released from supernatural sanctions and are running free. Their flaunting of long-standing moral codes and values is threatening the welfare of us all. Though you may not have been directly responsible for these traditional signposts and guidelines, they were the most inspired ones available. They had long been the foundation of stability and order in society. Thoughtless disregard of them poses the possibility of social chaos.
Help us to understand, and know how to deal with, this unprecedented change and the problems it is producing. Share with us at least a glimpse of your long-range view: what you are thinking, and working toward, in this disturbed and stressful era.
Are we humans becoming a hopeless basket case, going to hell on a rocket?
Or are we moving toward greater maturity, freedom, and assumption of responsibility? Are the present intimations of impending chaos merely evidence that we are in a period of transition to a new stage of development in your plan for us?
Dear God, grant that this may be so. Give us the will and faith to help make it so.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
