Sunday, July 19, 2009
Offered by Joyce Shin, Associate Pastor

Great is your Word, O Lord, and great are your works. Each day we breathe in what you breathed out; we take in the goodness and beauty of the world you created, and our souls are replenished.

For this we are grateful. For there are times when our lives lack rhythm and we cannot find the beat; when we lose sight of the horizon and feel our immediate concerns closing in; when we strive hard though our efforts seem to amount to nothing. It is at times like these, Lord, when we need replenishment to be as simple as breathing in what you breathed out.

Great is your Word, O Lord, and great are your works. Your Word and works have always been bold. Just as your Son directed his disciples to be bold, direct us also.

For there is much to be done, Lord: there are more than 5,000 to be fed; there are many messes to be cleaned up; many lives to be straightened out; and many wrongs to be forgiven and righted. Equip us with the same truths that your Son preached and the same bold spirit with which he accomplished his deeds, so that relying on these truths and empowered by this spirit, we too can bear your good news.

And when bearing your good news becomes burdensome, give us companions with whom we can share the load. Lord, let this church be such a company of people. Form us to be less fickle than the crowds to whom your Son preached. Impress upon our minds your truth; engrave deeply upon our hearts your love for the world; and strengthen our bodies with practice, so that bearing your good news is as easy to us as breathing in what you breathed out.

And now it is in the company of the church that we say the prayer you have taught us to say: Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church