Thursday, December 5, 2013

Lection* Prayers for Today

Psalm 62.5-7   For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

Morning.  Advent – the waiting time.  Centuries before Jesus, the Psalmist reminds for whom we wait . . . for God alone, for in God alone is our hope.  How well to remember, how freeing to rest in this blessed assurance.  In God alone . . . oh, Lord, how often do I place my hope in self or others, in situations and outcomes?  How often must I learn and relearn and be spared my own foolishness?  You alone are hope, for You alone can be hope – all else is false promise, unwarranted expectation, idolatry of self in the form of my own person or my own kind.  O, Wholly Other, help me today and all days to stand, silently stand, upon the Rock that is You.

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Amos 4.13  For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth — the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!

Noon.  Good news or bad . . . easy life or hard . . . met desires or disappointments . . . there You are, God of the hosts of  worlds of need . . . like Job, I was not there . . . like the ancients, I try to listen when You speak . . . like the astronomers and the psalmists, I behold Your handiwork and am brought to the silence of wonder . . . and for it all . . . in it all . . . through it all . . . I render You Your due and fall into the arms of Your whelming.  

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Psalm 126.5-6   May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.  Those who go out weeping,  bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

Night.  A blessing for day’s end . . . so many weep this day, Lord, their wounds so deep, so wide, their tears become their only solace, their only proof of life . . . help them know that in those tears, in that life, lies the very seed You planted within from before the beginning of things . . . let there be comfort . . . allow the day to bring joy they scarce had dared to imagine . . . may it be so, Lord, may it be so.  Amen.

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PC(USA) daily lection for Thursday, Dec. 5


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