Good morning.
Today is Monday,
November 23,
2020.
Oh Lord,
Let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to God,
The three in one creator,
Redeemer and sustainer.
As it was in the beginning is now and will be forever.
Amen.
Come let us bow down and worship.
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
Remind yourself that you're in God's presence.
Notice how God may be speaking to you today.
Let yourself dwell on any word or phrase that catches your attention and let your heart respond to God in prayer.
Please repeat these words.
I will enter your gates with thanksgiving.
I will dance in your courts with praise.
Psalm 95 verses one through seven.
Come let us sing joyfully to God.
Raise a shout to our rock,
Our deliverance.
Let us come into God's presence with thanksgiving and sing our praises with joy.
For the Lord is a great God,
The great ruler above all gods.
Oh God in your hands are the depths of the earth and the mountain peaks are yours.
Yours is the sea for you made it.
The dry land as well for your hands formed it.
Come let us bow down and worship.
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker for you are our God and we are the people you shepherd,
The flock under your care.
Please repeat these words.
I will enter your gates with thanksgiving.
I will dance in your courts with praise.
Our prayer today was written by Walter Brueggemann and it is called the God who yearns and waits for us.
Heavenly Father,
Guardian of the brokenhearted,
Savior of the crushed in spirit.
We are strange conundrums of faithfulness and fickleness.
We cleave to you in all the ways that we are able.
We count on you and intend our lives to be lived for you and then we find ourselves among your people who are always seeking elsewhere and otherwise.
So we give thanks that you are the God who yearns and waits for us and that our connection to you is always from your side and that is that it is because of your goodness that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor heights nor depths nor anything in creation can separate us from you.
We give you thanks for your faithfulness so much more durable than ours.
In the name of Jesus who taught us to pray,
Our Father which art in heaven,
Eternal God,
Earth maker,
Pain bearer,
Life giver,
Source of all that is and all that shall be,
Not only Father but Mother of us all.
May the hallowing of your name echo through the universe.
May the way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world.
May your heavenly will be done by all created beings.
May your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today,
Feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another,
Forgive us.
In times of temptation and test,
Strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure,
Spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil,
Free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love now and forever.
Amen.
Thank you,
Lord,
For the many ways you watch over and protect us in the course of the day.
As you shelter us,
Show us also how to provide physical and spiritual shelter for those we encounter today.
Amen.
And now,
My friends,
May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ go with you wherever he may send you today.
May he guide you through the wilderness,
Protect you through the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you.
May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
Go in peace.
