Psalm 92.4-7
For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;
I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
How great are your works, Lord,
how profound your thoughts!
Senseless people do not know,
fools do not understand,
that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be destroyed forever.
From John:
There is joy and love to fill us, when we are emptied by confession. When we fall in repentance, there is strength to lift us up, carrying us to sanctification. Our arms are too short to grasp what we need. But Christ is the arm of the Lord, bared before the nations—never too short to save.
Reflection: Emptiness Filled by Love :: Worldwide Prayer
A prayer of brokenness from the USA
Gracious God,
We are sinners.
That stark declaration reverberates in the hollow and broken places of or lives. They are words we are often slow to speak because they are painful to hear. It is a description sometimes we more easily apply to others than to ourselves. Yet, when we are confronted by your awesome love and your infinite compassion the reality of our sinfulness pours from our lips and our lives.
Compassionate God, we are sinners in need of forgiveness. The emptiness within us can only be filled by your love.
We are hurting people in need of healing.
We are angry people in need of your calming presence.
We are broken people in need of wholeness.
Many of us have lived so long with our sinfulness that we believe we cannot be forgiven. Forgive us, gracious God, for believing forgiveness is an illusory gift.
Help us to live in the reality of your love, O God. Your love is as certain as the Cross of Christ, as sure as the nail prints in his hands, as real as the mended places in our lives.
We confess our sins, and we confess that we believe you love us so much that you forgive us our sins and make us whole once more.
Thanks be to God for sins forgiven.
*Prayer from Hallowed be Your Name: A collection of prayers from around the world, Dr. Tony Cupit, Editor.
Prayer: The Morning Psalm
O Lord, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters, or with things that are too hard for me. But I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother’s breast; my soul is quieted within me. — Psalm 131.1-3
– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.
Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 41 (Listen – 4:40)
Psalm 92-93 (Listen – 2:09)
Additional Reading
Read More from Forgiveness to Soften the Hardened :: Worldwide Prayer
Forgive our closed ears—so rarely listening to your still voice and the needs of those close around us.
Read More about Liquid Wrath and Liquid Forgiveness :: Readers’ Choice
The link between multiple biblical images of God’s wrath as something poured out, and God’s salvation as Christ’s blood poured out, hit me very profoundly. — reader, Lauren Nichols
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