Prayer To Look Forward Rather Than Looking Back
Monday September 14, 2020
Looking Ahead
Back in March when things began to shift and lockdowns began happening in hopes of containing the virus, we all thought this was a few weeks of sacrifice so we could get back to normal. There was talk of a “new normal” with physical distancing requirements but the focus was always on getting back to life as we knew it at some point.
Six months later, with case numbers ticking up, life has changed. This “new normal” – will certainly not last forever. We will come out the other side of this pandemic. I don’t know about you but before all this started happening I’d never known about the pandemic in 1918-1920. I don’t remember ever seeing pictures of people masked and although I read a lot of biography and memoirs I had never bumped into one. My father was born just as the pandemic was ending and my mother two years later so the times are not distance from our family but life moved on.
Life is never the same for a family when a loved one is lost or a business goes bankrupt or any of the numerous disruptions being faced these days because of the pandemic are experienced. But, life goes on.
Jesus Christ came to earth, lived, died, rose again and ascended back into heaven. Life was never the same for a rag tag band of men and women who became His followers and because of them, for the rest of the world. The message of the Gospel through them has changed the world.
I guess I’m saying all this today to invite us to quit trying to hold on to what life was before this pandemic invaded our space. Life as we knew it is gone. Whatever emerges on the other side of this time of adjustments and restrictions will not be a simple return to what was. That’s gone. We need to let it go. We need to find God in these moments and allow the lessons and gifts being made available to us today to fill us and prepare us for what is ahead. God has a wonderful future for us. Will we receive it and allow God to lead us into it? That’s what we’ll pray and ask God’s help and blessing for today.
Heavenly Father,
Our systems have been shocked over and over again in these weeks and months of the pandemic and yet none of this has been a surprise to you. You are with us. You’ve always been with us. You will go forward with us into what is to us an unknown future but which for You is well known and completely prepared for. You are always making all things new if we will let You. Help us, as the Apostle Paul did to simple do today with you:
One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14
You’ve given us so many examples in the Bible of how events that were horrible and even unjust in the moment for a person were actually turned around for great good. We think of the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and how decades later, after enduring years of hardship because of their sinful choice he was able to tell them:
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Genesis 50:20
And so our prayer today God is simply this:
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,
Ephesians 1:18
We are your people. Our times are in Your hands. The pandemic is not the shaping feature of our lives even though it has an impact on some parts of our daily activities at the moment. God, we gladly affirm that You are still in charge and Your purposes for our lives and Your kingdom is going forward without a hitch. It’s obviously different than what we thought but we pray for the humility to learn from You and adjust our thinking and perspective.
If we let the events of the pandemic shape our thoughts and emotions we’ll be up and down like a roller coaster. We don’t want to do that. Instead we want to let You lead us forward and the path You put before us is steady and safe. We pray:
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
Psalm 143:10
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