Prayer for all people

Heavenly Father, God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, of all that is, seen and unseen,

a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children,
to the third and the fourth generation,

have mercy on us all.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

Lord, what can I say for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, when you say their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur?
Those who have nothing--will you take even what little they have away? Will you throw them into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth?
Will you forever fix a chasm between the righteous and the unrighteous, so that the righteous may not bring relief to those being tortured by flames?

How can this be?
For you, O God, did not send your Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
I know that your light has come into the world, and that people have loved darkness rather than light, because our deeds are evil.

For there is no one who is righteous, not even one;
There is no one who has understanding,
There is no one who seeks God.
All have turned aside, together we have become worthless;
There is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.
Our throats are opened graves;
We use our tongues to deceive.
The venom of vipers is under our lips.
Our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
Our feet are swift to shed blood.
Ruin and misery are in our paths,
And the way of peace we have not known.
There is no fear of God before our eyes.

I know we grieve your heart, O God; you look on us and say, "I am sorry that I have made them."
You say to your servant, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?"

Have mercy, O God, according to your steadfast love.
According to your abundant mercy, blot out our transgressions.
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin.
Create in us clean hearts, O God,
And put a new and right spirit within us.
Do not cast us away from your presence,
And do not take your Holy Spirit from us.

For then all creation will hear of it; for in your power you created human beings in your image, and all the creation knows that for us and for our salvation you have come among us, taking the form of a human being. If you destroy the disobedient, then all creation will cry out, "It is because the Lord was not able to save the people He created that He has thrown them into the hell of fire."

It is not that I love wickedness, O God.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my thoughts.

It is not because I love wickedness that I pray for all people.

Yet because the wicked are my enemies, I love them, and I pray for them, because that is what your children do, O God.
Therefore forgive all people, for we do not know what we are doing.
I know you do not want any to perish. Have mercy on us all.

No one has ever seen you, O God; in Christ you have made yourself known, but Christ has ascended into heaven.
Be patient with us, O God, and do not condemn, since no one has ever seen you. Manifest yourself in us; let love be perfected in your people, so that the world may know you.
Do not leave us to continue in our errors. Instruct sinners in the way we should go.
In your love make us into something new, for if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation!

O Lord, I confess that I do not know how to pray as I ought, and I know that I will not be heard for my many words.
Yet I do pray all these things in love, in the name of Christ, trusting in His promise to do anything His followers ask in His name.
Forgive all people, O God, on the day of your judgment, so that there may truly be no more mourning, crying, or pain, when you send your holy city down from heaven.
Let sin, death, mourning and pain all be defeated by your infinite Love, O God.

For the greatest of these is Love.