Sundays after Easter
Prayer
Pastoral Prayers For All Seasons
Object:
Lord, what was it that was so devastating yesterday, that brings us here today so depressed and troubled?
Oh yes, we remember.
It started when we stepped on the bathroom scales and got so angry because we had regained the weight we had lost in the last several weeks.
Then we snapped at a family member when we didn't even know what was being discussed.
Then we spent fifty dollars for a shower gift -- to make a good impression on someone at work -- at the same time bypassing an opportunity to give to the Salvation Army.
It was a string of little things that became monumental.
We try to change, Lord ... often. It's so discouraging that all our efforts at self-improvement have so little effect. Will we ever do anything right? Our friends lose weight, listen and say the right things, and stay by their priorities. Why are we such fumblers? All the little things join together to create an eddy, a whirlpool that drives us below the water's surface. All our struggling doesn't work. Rather, we continue to mess things up and privately confirm that we are failures.
We get angry at ourselves for our failures. We become silent and withdraw from others. Isn't that what failures are supposed to do? If we are not worth our own love, how can we expect the love of others?
We have turned on ourselves. But we don't talk about this rebellion. We've hidden this knowledge in a small secret place in our hearts. We don't even want you to know.
Then one Sunday we hear ourselves singing:
I was sinking deep in sin
Far from the peaceful shore
Very deeply stained within
Sinking to rise no more
But the Master of the sea
Heard my despairing cry
From the waters lifted me
Now safe am I.
Love lifted me.
Help us sing these words from our hearts. How they save us -- what hope they create.
What a wondrous God you are. You see us for what we are. We fall on our faces for the hundredth time and yet you remain patient. We have hurt ourselves and you are still willing to comfort and heal us. How can we praise you enough?
It is your love that lifts us, that wipes clean the slate and writes of hope that will bring us to a new day.
We bring before you our great need, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Oh yes, we remember.
It started when we stepped on the bathroom scales and got so angry because we had regained the weight we had lost in the last several weeks.
Then we snapped at a family member when we didn't even know what was being discussed.
Then we spent fifty dollars for a shower gift -- to make a good impression on someone at work -- at the same time bypassing an opportunity to give to the Salvation Army.
It was a string of little things that became monumental.
We try to change, Lord ... often. It's so discouraging that all our efforts at self-improvement have so little effect. Will we ever do anything right? Our friends lose weight, listen and say the right things, and stay by their priorities. Why are we such fumblers? All the little things join together to create an eddy, a whirlpool that drives us below the water's surface. All our struggling doesn't work. Rather, we continue to mess things up and privately confirm that we are failures.
We get angry at ourselves for our failures. We become silent and withdraw from others. Isn't that what failures are supposed to do? If we are not worth our own love, how can we expect the love of others?
We have turned on ourselves. But we don't talk about this rebellion. We've hidden this knowledge in a small secret place in our hearts. We don't even want you to know.
Then one Sunday we hear ourselves singing:
I was sinking deep in sin
Far from the peaceful shore
Very deeply stained within
Sinking to rise no more
But the Master of the sea
Heard my despairing cry
From the waters lifted me
Now safe am I.
Love lifted me.
Help us sing these words from our hearts. How they save us -- what hope they create.
What a wondrous God you are. You see us for what we are. We fall on our faces for the hundredth time and yet you remain patient. We have hurt ourselves and you are still willing to comfort and heal us. How can we praise you enough?
It is your love that lifts us, that wipes clean the slate and writes of hope that will bring us to a new day.
We bring before you our great need, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
