Prayer To Receive The Ultimate Benefit Package of Helps During The Pressures of the Pandemic
Monday May 18, 2020
BENEFIT PACKAGES
Early on in the time of the pandemic here in Canada benefit packages were announced to help with the financial stresses. Federal packages were supplemented by provincial benefit packages. As time has gone on it has seemed like there was one financial aid benefit package announced every day. This past week seniors and students have had benefit packages announced and wage subsidy benefit packages have been extended.
With all the talk about benefit packages it got me thinking about the ultimate benefit package that we are told about in the Bible in Psalm 103 and it gives me joy as we take a few moments now to open our hearts in prayer to receive all the benefits God has announced and made available to us.
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for how caring and how generous You are. There’s no one who is as loving a parent as You are to Your children. We don’t deserve Your kindness but You give it to us anyway. You are so faithful to make sure that every detail of our daily needs is covered by Your benefit package. We want to open our hearts and receive from You today.
You know we sin and we thank you for your promise to forgive every sin confessed to you – You’ve done this over and over again and so we know that today is one more opportunity to be made fresh and clean through the blood of the Lord Jesus who paid the price for our sins on the cross. Lord, help us not to neglect this benefit but to take stock of our lives and turn from anything that is out of line with Your will, receive Your forgiveness and make a fresh start.
When we run after various other things to provide pleasure or security they always fall short and we’re left feeling discontent and unsatisfied. But we thank You that today as we open our hearts to You, Your words and Your presence fill us up with good until we are satisfied. You also give us our daily needs as we look to you – both physically and emotionally. We need renewing and refreshing and the energy of youth during these draining times of physical distancing and social isolation. Pour your strength into our lives we pray.
We don’t always get it right and during the times of stress these days we often fall short. We’re so thankful today that the benefit of justice and mercy that You apply to our lives does not depend on us being perfect. You see the ways we are oppressed by evil forces, by the circumstances around us, by the injustice of people who say and do things that attack and discourage us, but You God, give us the benefit today of working what’s right on our behalf no matter what comes at us. We take heart and encouragement from that.
You could find fault with our attitudes, words, and action on numerous times during the day and all of our failings disappoint you and cause you pain, yet you do not react with impatience and treat us as we deserve.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
Your love is so great for us. The writer of this Psalm used the picture of Your love being as great as the wide expanse of the sky is above the earth. We are so grateful that the benefits of Your love in our lives far surpasses our demand on it. Your ability to take the darkness and sin from our lives and remove it to places where no one can ever reach it again is incredible.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
We’re so grateful to be personally known by You and cared for as a loving father has compassion on His children. Benefit packages provide general help for groups of people in general and every day we hear of those who fall through the cracks for one reason or another. But with You God, the benefits of Your love and forgiveness and generous provision are uniquely crafted and applied to every single one of us who come to you because You and You alone know how frail and vulnerable we are – particularly during this time of disease and financial and social hardship related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
And so Lord, for whatever benefit packages the government is able to send our way we do give thanks and we will receive it gladly. But today, we want to settle our hearts and our future not in what the government can or can’t do but in what You have done for us, how You’ve so faithfully been there for us, what you are doing every day, and what You promise to do for us going forward.
With King David who wrote this Psalm we say:
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
Early on in the time of the pandemic here in Canada benefit packages were announced to help with the financial stresses. Federal packages were supplemented by provincial benefit packages. As time has gone on it has seemed like there was one financial aid benefit package announced every day. This past week seniors and students have had benefit packages announced and wage subsidy benefit packages have been extended.
With all the talk about benefit packages it got me thinking about the ultimate benefit package that we are told about in the Bible in Psalm 103 and it gives me joy as we take a few moments now to open our hearts in prayer to receive all the benefits God has announced and made available to us.
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for how caring and how generous You are. There’s no one who is as loving a parent as You are to Your children. We don’t deserve Your kindness but You give it to us anyway. You are so faithful to make sure that every detail of our daily needs is covered by Your benefit package. We want to open our hearts and receive from You today.
You know we sin and we thank you for your promise to forgive every sin confessed to you – You’ve done this over and over again and so we know that today is one more opportunity to be made fresh and clean through the blood of the Lord Jesus who paid the price for our sins on the cross. Lord, help us not to neglect this benefit but to take stock of our lives and turn from anything that is out of line with Your will, receive Your forgiveness and make a fresh start.
When we run after various other things to provide pleasure or security they always fall short and we’re left feeling discontent and unsatisfied. But we thank You that today as we open our hearts to You, Your words and Your presence fill us up with good until we are satisfied. You also give us our daily needs as we look to you – both physically and emotionally. We need renewing and refreshing and the energy of youth during these draining times of physical distancing and social isolation. Pour your strength into our lives we pray.
We don’t always get it right and during the times of stress these days we often fall short. We’re so thankful today that the benefit of justice and mercy that You apply to our lives does not depend on us being perfect. You see the ways we are oppressed by evil forces, by the circumstances around us, by the injustice of people who say and do things that attack and discourage us, but You God, give us the benefit today of working what’s right on our behalf no matter what comes at us. We take heart and encouragement from that.
You could find fault with our attitudes, words, and action on numerous times during the day and all of our failings disappoint you and cause you pain, yet you do not react with impatience and treat us as we deserve.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
Your love is so great for us. The writer of this Psalm used the picture of Your love being as great as the wide expanse of the sky is above the earth. We are so grateful that the benefits of Your love in our lives far surpasses our demand on it. Your ability to take the darkness and sin from our lives and remove it to places where no one can ever reach it again is incredible.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
We’re so grateful to be personally known by You and cared for as a loving father has compassion on His children. Benefit packages provide general help for groups of people in general and every day we hear of those who fall through the cracks for one reason or another. But with You God, the benefits of Your love and forgiveness and generous provision are uniquely crafted and applied to every single one of us who come to you because You and You alone know how frail and vulnerable we are – particularly during this time of disease and financial and social hardship related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
And so Lord, for whatever benefit packages the government is able to send our way we do give thanks and we will receive it gladly. But today, we want to settle our hearts and our future not in what the government can or can’t do but in what You have done for us, how You’ve so faithfully been there for us, what you are doing every day, and what You promise to do for us going forward.
With King David who wrote this Psalm we say:
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
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