Prayer & Praise
We confess, when we ponder your large governance, that our “chief end” is to glorify you and enjoy you forever.
We confess that the purpose of our life, purposes twinned, are your glory and our joy.
That is our true end!
But when we come to the end of our work together, and the end of our text together, It strikes us that we know less about “ends” than we imagine.
We sing our explanatory doxologies,
We reiterate our concluding slogan that “thine is the kingdom and the glory and the power.”
We add our confident, loud “Amen” to our best petitions.
But-truth to tell-We cannot see the end; when we do see the end, we do not know its meaning … whether termination or transition.
And so, like our many fathers and mothers always,
We trust where we cannot see,
eating what we are fed,
taking what of recognition we can muster,
restless and present under a myriad of surveillances,
but finally ceding our end to you,
in our simple, final prayer: Come Lord Jesus.
Come among us,
Come to your church in bewilderment,
Come to our state in its vexation,
Come to our world in its insomnia.
Grant us peace with justice, peace with joy, peace at the last, peace on earth … and glory to you in the highest.
Amen.
Walter Brueggemann. Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: The Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (p. 130). Kindle Edition.
Amen and absolutely amen.
That prayer is beautiful…..Amen.
Yesterday my Uncle Woody died. He was my dad’s baby brother and the last one to leave this earth. Of my father’s 3 brothers, he was the only one that walked with Jesus all his life. He prayed for his brothers and and their families, and lived out His faith in Christ, loving and serving his wife, children, church and community.
When my husband and I were in our early 20’s and on drugs, searching for meaning in our lives….(doing the whole hippie lifestyle) he and his wife were lifting out their arms in love to us, and on their knees, praying for us. When the Lord so graciously opened our eyes and rescued us, we knew God had heard the prayers of my mom and my Uncle Woody and his wife. How thankful I am for his example of loving God and reaching out in grace and mercy to hurting souls.
May I encourage any of you that are praying for a loved one and perhaps discouraged by what you see or don’t see. Don’t give up!
Keep loving them, (in word and deed) and keep on praying for them. God hears your cries, He knows, He cares, and He is able.
Nonnie, that’s wonderfully encouraging… and it occurs to me to pray for God to raise up more of those Uncle Woodys – we have a generation coming up so dependent on the internet for their “reality” – worse than drugs, perhaps
Prayer request:
Please pray for some longtime friends of ours. Their grandson, 14 year old Nathaniel, has the same heart defect our grandson has. Over the past few months, his heart weakened and he went into hospital for observation. Last week they did a heart catheter to assess his heart function and decide what the next step would be. During the procedure Nathaniel had a heart attack and has been on life support for 3 or 4 days now. The doctors are now saying that he has suffered severe brain damage and no hope.
Only a miracle……..only a miracle. Lord have mercy.
Nathaniel was taken off life support this morning and has gone to be with Jesus. Please pray for my friends who have lost their 14 year d son/grandson.
Lord, have mercy.