Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. (Psalm 54: 4)
In times when pain distracts us and turns us in on ourselves:
‘Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.’
In times of anxiety when we are caught up in a whirlwind of emotion:
‘Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.’
In times when bitter experience threatens to take God away from us, even then help us to persist in saying:
‘Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.’
Father, enable us to see that all of this is the experience of Jesus, born as one of us, our brother, our friend, who is heaven today carries the pain, the emotion, the anguish that so often falls to us.
The One who in the power of His Spirit comes to us when we need help to sustain us and take us forward in strength and in hope.
Forgive us our lack of faith in His Spirit and bring us now the assurance that whatever our sins of word, of thought, of deed, we are sustained and set free to renew our walk in His ways.
We praise you that you have called us to be a people together,
Who can praise You with one voice for Your blessings to us,
Who can look to one another for inspiration and encouragement,
Who can share the great commission to tell the story of Jesus and serve those in need.
We praise you for those in the past who were faithful in responding to the call, who came through the challenges of their time, who believed through their own personal suffering, even death, and now enjoy their place in the eternal Kingdom.
We pray for the life of the Church throughout the world, that whatever the circumstances there will always be reason for thanksgiving.
We pray for our world, so broken, so divided, so much in need of a Saviour who forgives, heals, unites and satisfies.
We pray for our nation, pressing on with so much pain behind us and so much unknown before us, may our hope be grounded in what You alone promise.
We pray for those whose pain, anxiety and loss we carry with us today in the faith that Your eye is upon them and Your love is reaching out to them.
