Prayer To Enjoy What God Is Giving Even During This Pandemic
Saturday June 27, 2020
JUST FOR TODAY – ENJOY
Well, we all wonder what the next weeks and months are going to look like. Will there be a vaccine? Will things ever get back to normal as we used to know normal? What impact is all this going to have on our future, our education, our ability to get and keep jobs going forward? While it is good to do some thinking and preparing for the future, there is also a time when we need to take a step back, look around, look within, and enjoy what God has given us today. We are so blessed.
In some recovery circles we say the following words at meetings as part of a group of things we trust will help us focus on today and quiet the negative thoughts and obsessions that take us to places of addiction and destructive behaviour we’d rather not go.
Just for today I will have a quiet half hour all by myself to relax
and enjoy all that God is giving me.
People in recovery meetings and circles are not the only people who have failed to trust God and who have wandered into a destructive lifestyle by looking too far into the future or trying to think too much about things that haven’t even yet happened or things that have happened that can’t be change. God has promised to have amazing grace and patience with us and has already shown us how faithful He is to go with us, prepare the way for us, forgive us when we falter and restore us to a loving relationship with Him and others.
Today, let’s give thanks to God for all we’ve been given.
Loving God, we come to You today with hearts that have gratitude for many things and also thoughts and feelings that too easily get caught up in people, places, and things that are beyond our control. We spend too much time obsessed with past failure or worries about the unknown future. Today, we want to live in this day. We want to receive the gift of this day that You’ve given to us to rejoice and be glad in.
This is the day the LORD has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24
We thank you for so many gifts You’ve given us that we can enjoy: friends, nature, the laughter of children, silly jokes and friendly smiles, flowers and birds, the wind blowing the leaves, music and the ability to hear it; good food and the sense of taste and smell that some have lost due to COVID-19; times of being together with friends – even with social distancing; meditation thoughts and the ability to read them when so many haven’t had the chance to learn how to read; the simple ability to breathe in and out that has not only challenged many but taken life from thousands dur to the virus; food and supplies on grocery store shelves again – even toilet paper on sale in the grocery store!! The list of things to enjoy would take more than half an hour to compose.
But most of all, with many others like us in history, we’re grateful for You being a forgiving and restoring God who walks with us today after we’ve wandered in self-centeredness and sin. You don’t write people off but You raise up voices around them to call out to them so we can come back to You. We’re grateful as the song says, “My fear doesn’t stand a chance when I stand in Your love.”
We’re grateful for this moment in our journey of being restored to You and to community around us. As the people of God thousands of years ago heard your prophet Ezra explain Your word and turned back to You so we want to be encouraged to celebrate this moment as we continue to journey to wholeness.
This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10
We’re grateful that we can enjoy You, Your promises, and Your blessings today. We don’t have to wait until we are perfect.
So, once again, as we go through this day we pray that You will help us pause today and notice and give thanks for all You are bringing to this day. Thank you for filling our lives with good things. Amen
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