Prayer To Know Which Masks To Wear and Which To Take Off
MASKS
As information has been collected about the COVID-19 virus opinions have shifted in the medical community around the benefit of wearing face masks. We’re encouraged to wear face coverings in public, particularly in areas where it is difficult to maintain the 6 foot or 2 meter safe distancing zone around us. Outside of the best of hospital personal protection equipment, the cloth or disposable masks we wear are mostly for the purpose of keeping us from spreading the virus to others as we breath, talk and cough etc.
All sorts of cartoons have come to light about masks since they used to be associated with bank robbers and those who were trying to hide their identity from others.
As we pray today, let’s ask God to help us to do all we can to protect others and at the same time, let go of any harmful masks we might wear to keep truth from being known.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for ways we can learn and the things we can do to help keep one another safe. Thank you for the humility the medical community has shown in being willing to change their mind and message as they’ve gained new information about the virus and for their example both in word and behaviour to practice safe habits in public.
Those who guard their lips preserve their lives,
but those who speak rashly will come to ruin.
Proverbs 13:3
While we want to do our part in keeping others safe, we also want to ensure that in every area of our lives we are being honest and open with the person You have created us to be and the way we are learning and growing.
What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies,
no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth.
In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all.
When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
Ephesians 4:25
We want to be people of truth. We don’t want to be giving false impressions or hiding things during these months of distance and isolation. We want to walk in truth with You and with one another. We don’t live to ourselves but we live before You God, and You say that we are connected to others so if we lie we harm not only ourselves but others.
Lord forgive us for the ways we think negatively about ourselves and seek to hide our true person or our feelings from others. When we feel insecure or fearful it’s so easy to live behind a mask and deny our true self, rejecting the unique person You have created us to be.
Some of us hide behind masks of humour or busyness or anger. Others of us swing from the extremes of pretending to be always okay or a victim. We hide behind silence or by chattering on to keep others from knowing what’s really going on inside. Sometimes we’ve done this for so long that we hardly remember who we really are.
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you
may know how you ought to answer each person.
Colossians 4:6
Help us Lord to live with authenticity. We don’t want to be rude and inconsiderate but we want to live with honesty and openness about what we believe, who we are, and where we are both doing well and struggling.
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when
I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar
with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
Psalm 139:1, 5, 16
We confess that often when we feel vulnerable we allow ourselves to be burdened by putting on a mask. Help us to stand firm on the truth of who You say we are. You made us individually and uniquely, and we are precious in Your sight. Though we may feel helpless in a given moment, we can rely on You to be our support for You delight in us and will shield us from all harm.
And so Heavenly Father, as we put on face coverings to help keep all of us safe in community, would you at the same time help us to take off all the masks that hinder us from becoming the persons You created us to be. Help us to tell the truth and live the truth in every circumstance and leave the outcome with You. Amen
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