Prayer To Recognize God's Loving Voice In Nature Even On Gray Days With The Pandemic

 Hearing God's Kind Voice InNature

Here in the Northern Hemisphere I doubt that many people would say that November is their favourite month for weather.  Here in the Vancouver, BC area this is the month of gray skies, cold winds, rain and rain and rain.  With the days already shortened by the season, accentuated by dark cloudy skies all day, it sometimes can seem like we never quite got around to daylight. 

This second wave of the pandemic has certainly cast a dark cloud for many of us as well.  All we can see on the horizon is more cases or further lockdowns.  Even promising results from vaccine tests leave us waiting for a long time before adequate distribution will ever take place. 

Into these dark and sometimes gloomy days come these words from God;

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.

They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.  Psalm 19:1-4

As I sat by my living room window speaking to the Lord this morning I paused to ask myself what I was missing.  Creation is speaking about God’s glory.  They are not just speaking on the glorious long summer evenings with the sound of the ocean in my ears as the sun goes down, they are speaking “day after day – even today” of God’s glory – making God known.  Am I paying attention?  Am I listening?  God is trying to reveal His glory to us today. 

This theme is not a “one-off” in Psalm 19 – it is a river running through scores of pages of the Bible.  Let’s read one more familiar one, take a moment to quiet our minds and open the ears of our heart to look at the sky and creation around us and then respond to the wonderful things God is speaking to us today:

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority. Psalm 8:3-6

Heavenly Father, Our Creator, Our Redeemer, Our Sustainer, Our friend – we sit under Your heavens on this earth You have created considering this astounding truth that you care about mere mortals like us.  Not only that but you have poured glory and honour into us – given us charge over everything You made.  How amazing is that.

Your word reminds us:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  Romans 1:18-20

Forgive us Lord for the ways we suppress the truth about how wonderful You are when You have make it crystal clear to us if we would just pay attention.  Your invisible qualities – Your eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so we are all without excuse to say that we don’t know how good and powerful You are.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:21

Forgive us God for not recognizing Your greatness, for not honouring You as God, and for not giving thanks to You for all You’ve done.  All of our best thinking that doesn’t include You at both the foundation and the center is absolutely foolish and futile.  When we exclude the sound of Your voice, our inner world quickly becomes darker than dark November days in the middle of a difficult season with the COVID-19 pandemic getting worse around us.

Help us, Holy Spirit, to be conscious of the voice of our loving Heavenly Father in nature around us today and along with that, brought to our knees in gratitude and praise for the even clearer revelation of Your love for us in the life and death of Jesus Christ who so clearly showed us Your heart and Your loving power over sin and death.

And so Lord, whether the sun is shining on our faces today or not we lift our faces to you and receive Your blessing:

The Lord bless us and keep us.  The Lord make His face shine upon us and be gracious to us.  The Lord lift up His countenance upon us and give us peace.  Numbers 6