09/11/2026
God of all comfort, we need you each day, and especially this day, 25 years after everything changed.
On that perfectly blue day, many of us realized, maybe for the first time, that we are dust. We learned firsthand that the enemy of our souls is alive and seethes with hate for those made in your image. That hatred was made manifest in an unfathomable act of terror.
In our sadness, we remember your servants who no doubt preached the gospel in unknown, confusing darkness.
We remember the first responders who ran towards the devastation, and possessed the greatest of loves, in laying down their lives for others.
We remember the families and loved ones left behind. Please, Holy Spirit, comfort as only you can. Please cause them to turn to you in their grief.
Father God, the blood of our countrymen cries out from the ground in New York, in Washington DC, and in Pennsylvania. Father, let your justice reign: on earth as it is in heaven. Remind us that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and rulers of an unseen realm.
Father have mercy on us. We have turned our backs to you. We have forgotten that YOU are the only source of peace and comfort. It is only you who can truly bind up the wounds of our nation and our hearts. We repent of giving into the spirit of fear, of terror, and so often letting it rule over us in the 25 years since. We know that only your perfect love can cast out that fear.
We look back and realize that we cannot mend our own broken hearts, we cannot overcome the terror of the night, we cannot fix ourselves.
Though we don’t deserve it, would you rescue our nation? Would you revive our souls? Would you bind us to you in our collective grief? Would you restore the years the locusts have eaten?
We needed you on 9/11 and we still need you.
Please come quickly and wipe away our tears.
In Jesus name, amen.