Prayer For Help To Steer A Clear Course Through Challenging Times

NEW COMMANDS

I don’t know about you but I find myself steering away a bit from what seems like never-ending complications and twists and turns in this season of the virus.  Statistics and analysis of those statistics go on and on.  Governments and health officials are doing their best to chart a path through these difficult times and to provide for the most vulnerable but it’s a struggle for them and who really knows what will need to be adjusted or restricted going forward.

I’m also tired of so much angry rhetoric – bitter I would say -- in this climate of uncertainty and what I believe are good-faith efforts to help as many people as possible. I do watch the news every day but I record it first and my finger is always on the remote control to get through what I’m tired of hearing and which seems to be the same old, same old.  I suppose all of this has been magnified by election coverage both here in our province and coverage of the election coming soon – thank God – in the United States. 

I am so grateful that over and over again my heart and mind can be drawn back to simple invigorating truths that give me a focus for my attitude and actions for each day.  Listen to these lovely words:

Dear friends, I’m not writing you a new command. Instead, I’m writing one you have heard before. You have had it since the beginning. But I am writing what amounts to a new command. Its truth was shown in how Jesus lived. It is also shown in how you live. That’s because the darkness is passing away. And the true light is already shining.      1 John 2:7-8

So we pray again today, with thanks, Loving God, for the simple truths that keep us focused and energized in these challenging times.  Your word hasn’t changed.  What matters has been the same from before the beginning of time and it’s been the same through centuries and millennia – through cultures and governments coming up and falling down. 

Jesus Christ is the light for today and every day.  As we see His life and follow His example our own way becomes clear.  Forgive us and our governments for the way we have rejected You and Your clear teaching about what builds up and what tears down.  As our governments and cultures get darker and darker we simply agree with You that they are passing away.  We don’t know when or how quickly our current civilizations will fall and change but we know that will happen as long as we stray further from Your light. 

We pray that we and our leaders would repent and turn to You and seek to know and follow You, enacting laws that uphold what is true and trustworthy.  We know that when that would be done that You would forgive us and bring healing to our land.  We have Your famous promise that says: 

f my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.    2 Chronicles 7:14

Keep us from hating others or we fall into the darkness ourselves.  Help us to hold on to our brothers and sisters in Christ and to support one another as we call our for mercy on our nations.  Show us people with whom we are living in unforgiveness today.  We know we don’t have to condone their behaviour to still love them and accept them and have a clear heart and conscience in relationship with them.  Once again we come to Your word are seek to live the truth today that says:

Suppose someone claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister. Then they are still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light. There is nothing in them to make them fall into sin. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness. They walk around in the darkness. They don’t know where they are going. The darkness has made them blind.

1 John 2:9-11

We want to be people of the light today.  You’ve clearly described the way forward for us so that we live in the light and don’t have to fall into sin.  Show us where we’ve failed to do that and blindly gone ahead in response to our own wounds and the failings of others that have contributed to them.    Give us the love of the Lord Jesus who was willing to lay down His life for us when we were still His enemies. 

And so God today we pray Your blessing on those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, trusting that they will be filled.  For those who are merciful, that they will today experience mercy shown to them.  For those who are pure in heart, that they will see and recognize You today, Loving God.  And for those who make peace, that they will experience the safety and peace of living as children of God.  Amen

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful,  for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,  for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.   Matthew 5:6-9