Life is filled with mysteries. We have many questions for which there are no adequate answers. But we are not alone in the midst of our mysteries. God is always with us, upholding us, guiding us, comforting us, and above all loving us. Worship is God’s gift to us whereby we may approach Him in all our needs and desires. By praising Him we find new strength and hope for ourselves. Therefore let us, with renewed confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
We praise Thee, O God, that every week, every day, every hour, we can come unto Thee in prayer, asking for Thine assistance whenever we encounter situations for which answers are difficult or non-existent. Help us to live through and beyond the questions which confront us for which there shall never be answers, and to live within the inevitable limits which determine much of our existence, despite our dissatisfaction to live within any limits at all. Teach us that we are human, and therefore limited, that we cannot know everything we want to know, or to understand everything we do not understand. Convince us that we are merely humans, and that Thou alone art God.
We pray for people who continue to believe in Thee, despite major hardships or setbacks in their lives. Bless them in their constancy. We pray for people who once believed in Thee, but who, because of major adversity, have concluded there is no God, and now are trying to make it through life entirely on their own. We pray for people who have never believed in Thee, and who thus perceive life very differently from those of us who have accepted Thy gift of faith. Be with all Thy children in all our needs, Lord God, for those needs are great, and Thy grace alone can sustain us, whether or not we know it, affirm it, or exult in it.
On this Mothers Day we pray for all mothers, for those who are delighted to be mothers, and for those who are not; for those who devote many hours each week to being the best mothers they can be, and for those who do not; for those who see motherhood as Thy greatest gift to them, and for those who do not.. Uphold all mothers in their challenges, responsibilities, and obligations. We pray for the Nigerian girls who have been taken captive by brutal and benighted men who in their sinful pride imagine that they are acting in Thy name and with Thine approval. Be with a world where such things happen with dreadful regularity, and where people of good will seem powerless to deal with those who exhibit constant ill will. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage for the living of these days. We ask it in the name of Jesus, who came into the world to create a new world, even though it has not fully manifested itself. Now we pray as he taught his disciples, saying, Our Father….