Father.
We pray to you this morning knowing that you have authority over everything. You do your own will on the earth and no one can hold you back, and no one can call you out for mistakes or wrongdoing. For some of us, even the godliest of us, you ordain financial trouble, long sickness, loss of loved ones, and hard words from others. At other times you ordain wild success, years of health, peaceful work, and the joyful companionship of friends.
Though you do all that you please, we know that our asking accomplishes much. You don’t tell us to ask you and then not listen, or hear and then give us something bad instead of something good. You know that our conversations in this place are full of the stories of your answers to our prayers. And we receive those things with all the more joy because they are not something you owe us, but are gifts of your affection.
As for the difficulties of life that remain despite our prayers to be spared, sometimes we still struggle to understand it. But we know that you don’t remain aloof, but are near to the brokenhearted. And we know that he who shared your glory before the world existed did not exempt himself, but chose to become a man of sorrows. Even as our difficulties may confuse us, we marvel at you, and love you, and hope for the day when you will make all things right and good.
I want to pray for the pregnancy care center. More than that, I want to pray about abortion here in Canada. It mostly goes on behind closed doors, but we know it’s going on and we are upset every time we think about it. The spirit of Babylon has delighted in the slaughter of the innocent from the time Pharaoh had the Hebrew boys thrown into the river, to the people who burned their children as a sacrifice to Molech, to Herod killing the boys of Bethlehem, and now to us killing children by the tens of thousands by abortion. They have the law, and the money, and the popular support. We have none of those things. But why do we need any of that when we can ask you who owns everything for whatever we need? Give plenty of money to the Pregnancy Care Center, in spite of the efforts of Babylon to take it away. Put wisdom into the words of those who serve there so that the women who go there scared and confused may be given help and truth. Save the lives of children and the souls of parents through their work.
I pray for us here at Royal York. We who belong to Jesus now belong to each other. Help us to be one visibly just as you have made us one positionally. Let that oneness be of a kind that the world can’t manufacture an imitation of. May those who do not yet believe see our love and be overwhelmed with the knowledge that you are among us, and that all you have said about your son is true. Help us to love each other as you loved your son and as he loved us.
We remember how Christ, when he was here, did all the work that you gave him to do. He has gone but you have put his spirit inside us, that your work might continue on the earth. Help us to serve passionately with the strength of faith in whatever way you have gifted us to contribute. Help us to be content with the gifts you have given us and thankful for the ones you have not given us, but have given to others. Help us to serve according to the needs of those around us. There is a weird way that our service can turn into a means of self-expression instead of caring for the people that you gave us the gifts to love in the first place. Keep us from that and fill us with your love.
This morning as we sing, think about your word, care for children, pray, and speak words of encouragement to one another; may our time together honor you in every way and bring you delight.