Prayer for October 18: Please pray with me. God of our future, today we lift up our futures.  So often we see images of a not-so-bright future based on our present.  It’s easy to get sucked into a cloud of darkness.  There is a great deal of negativity and gloom around us.  Yet, you offer an alternative – a message filled with hope, mercy, forgiveness, peace.  You offer us something unthinkable – to walk with us in the dark places of our lives and to be a light that shines in the darkness.  We walk on a path that leads to places that we have no idea about.  And you walk right along side of us.  Help us to be vulnerable, to build trust and to be trusting.  Open our hearts to respond to your call for us.  Amen.