Heavenly Father,
We praise and adore you as the one who is before all things, who always was, always is, and always will be. You have the whole of history at your fingertips, and every day of the future is an open book to you. For you there are no mysteries. And not only do you know all that has happened, all that is happening, and all that will happen, but you hold it all in the palm of your hand. You are the architect of the future, building and furthering your plans through every decision we make, right or wrong. You are so great that you can turn our worst mistakes into your biggest blessings. You even turned our rebellion against you and our denial and murder of your son Jesus Christ into our eternal salvation. You are just that amazing.
But even though you can see the beginning, and the end, and you know what came before, and what will come after, you still dwell here with us in the now. You care about every one of us, and our momentary concerns. You want us to call on you when things get tough. You tell us to ask you when we are sick, to complain to you when life is hard, to question you when things just continually go wrong, and in all that to continue to have faith in you that you've got everything under control. And you do, Lord God. Because you don't hide your plans from us. We hate sickness, we abhore injustice, we avoid pain and we are upset by death. And you have shown us that these things will not last. You will last forever. We know that. But you call us to live with you forever, to live a life with you where there is no sickness, there is no injustice, there is no pain and there is no death. That's your plan, and you have shared it with us. And you have told us that these words are trustworthy and true. Our pain and our shame and our grieving will all be done away with. And we can trust you to do it, because you are our God.
And so we pray to you about all these things, as you have told us to. We pray for the sick in our midst, and those in our lives who are plagued with illness. We pray for those who face injustice, unfairness and oppression, both in our community and across the world. We pray for those who are wracked by pains, whether from physical hurt or from guilt, shame and betrayal. And we pray for those who grieve because of the loss of loved ones. We pray for all these things because we know you care about them. Give comfort and strength, encouragement and support to your people, so that we might see for ourselves these glimpses of your eternal kingdom. And then let us take those lights out into the world, where others might too see your glory through the comfort and strength and encouragement and support we offer others, as we pass on this testimony of your Son that you have given us - the time is coming, and it is coming soon. We praise you because you promise to accept anyone who wishes to take your free offer to live with you forever. These words are trustworthy and true.
We rejoice in the thought, and we pray together, "Come, Lord Jesus." And we ask that the grace of the Lord Jesus be with your people. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment