Prayer For Migrant Workers and For Us All To Be Fruitful
Tuesday July 21, 2020
MIGRANT WORKERS AND FRUITFULNESS
It’s lovely to go the green grocer or the supermarket and find fresh fruit and vegetables locally grown. When we drive here and there into Vancouver or out into the Fraser Valley the acres and acres of land under cultivation for vegetables and berries goes as far as the eye can see. There’s one stretch of road I like regularly drive down that has planted fields with corn and the height of the stalks changes pretty dramatically in just a few short weeks. This is growing season here in British Columbia.
As with much of the rest of Canada I give thanks today for those migrant workers who are willing to come and tend and harvest these crops so I and all of us can enjoy healthy food. Migrant workers have been hit pretty hard with the COVID-19 virus due to close living conditions and who knows what other factors. We bless them today to be safe and healthy as they work so hard to provide for their families. And we pray for all of us to be those who work hard and have lives that are fruitful
God, you are the one who saves us. We will trust in you.
Then we won’t be afraid. Lord, you are the one
who gives us strength. You are the one who
keeps us safe. Lord, you have saved us.
Isaiah 12:2
Loving God, thank you that You are the God who accompanies us in all the seasons of our lives. Sometimes we are fruitful and other times we seem to lag. But Lord we grateful that You are with us and we can trust in You. You give us strength. You give us life. You keep us safe.
For everything there is a season.
[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.
Ecclesiastes 3:1,11
You know one season from the next and You know what to do in our lives in order to have us properly prepared for what is to come. So, while we will focus on this day – because that’s all that we’re capable of handling well – we will commit all that we are and do to You and trust You to put all the rest of the days and weeks together into a cycle of seasons that brings blessing and refreshing to us and those we meet. Each season has its unique value and we pray to allow the seasons of life to go forward under Your watchful are and to allow You to shape us and mature us through it all.
Today we want to lift up migrant workers who come to Canada from various parts of the world. Lord, they know the risks from things like the COVID-19 crisis at this time and yet they long for a better life for themselves and their families and so they are willing to leave their loved ones behind to come from a distance and work. We bless them for their willingness to work hard in what is often hot backbreaking labour. Protect their health. Protect their families. We pray for those who hire them to deal with them justly and give them fair compensation for the work they do along with decent living conditions. Forgive us Lord for taking advantage of those less fortunate than ourselves and bless those who go against the tide and actually do provide well for their workers.
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch of mine that does not produce fruit.
He also trims every branch that produces fruit
to prepare it to produce even more.
John 15:1-2
We bring ourselves to You as well today Lord. You told us so clearly that we need to be part of the true vine in order to be fruitful and allow You to give us what we need and to trim off what is harmful. Help us to submit willingly to what You know needs doing in our lives, whether we understand what You are doing or not. When our lives are in Your care, God, we know Your Holy Spirit works in us to produce abundant and good fruit at the right time.
And so today we pray to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Glory be to him, now and forever! Amen.
2 Peter 3:18
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