Earth Day Prayer
This Earth Day Prayer is useful for any day you want to speak with God about your thankfulness for His creation and to ask for His help in respecting and conserving the natural resources that sustain our lives.
An Earth Day Prayer is appropriate on April 22 when Earth Day is celebrated to highlight our need to conserve and protect God’s magnificent creation and to protect and conserve the environment. Many communities sponsor events and educational opportunities to highlight this effort.
Scriptures for meditation on Earth Day
The Bible shows the very close ties between humanity, the earth and our Creator. Here are some ways faith, God, humans and nature are tightly interwoven:
God made the earth
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses…For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm.” ( Psalm 33:6 ,7,9 NIV)
We feel honored, blessed and accountable that God has given us dominion over his good earth
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your finger, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hand; you put everything under his fee: all flocks and heard, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” (Psalm 8:3-9)
God reveals his glory and his vast intelligence to us through nature
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” (Psalm 19 :1 NIV)
The earth belongs to God and everything in it, including us
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it; For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” (Psalm 24:1 NIV)
God created the ecological balance
“He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches…He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate – bringing for food from the earth : wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart.” (Psalm 104 :10, 11l,12,14 NIV)
The earth is subject to decay, depletion and renewal
For the creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8: 20 ,21 NIV)
“When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works. ” (Psalm 104:3 0 ,31 NIV)
Earth Day Prayer
Here is an Earth Day Prayer to help us honor God by the way we appreciate and care for his beautiful creation.
Dear Creator of our Universe,
We thank you that in Genesis as you created the building blocks of our world one by one you declared them all very good.
Thank you for the goodness of the day and the night,
the goodness of the atmosphere and the seas,
the goodness of the land and vegetation,
the goodness of the sun, moon and stars,
the goodness of all animals
and the goodness of all human beings. (Genesis 1:1-27.)
We also thank you that you created us as human beings in Your own image with the ability to
think, to discover and to build.
Thank you for our ability to marvel at both the majesty and grandeur of our earth as well as the intricate design of the tiniest detail of nature.
Because you created us to feel most alive when connected to the goodness of our earth,
Develop in us a deep respectfulness of the delicate balance of nature.
Forgive us for the things we have done that exploit and destroy any part of the balance you established from the very beginning of time.
Help us to remember that You have created us as body, mind, soul and spirit and if we neglect to nurture the physical side of our life, our spirits will perish.
Help us to nurture the earth as if it were our own body as the Scripture says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.” (I Corinthians 6:19 NIV version)
Help us to know that although the earth is our home, we do not own it. The earth is Yours, and everything in it. May we appreciate the infinite cost and value You placed on creation.
May we honor You by honoring the goodness of the works of Your hands today and every day the sun rises.
Amen.
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Copyright Karen Barbe 2012 All rights reserved.
