"I Will Not Be Afraid" - 23 May 2021

 

Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? / Lord, may our trust in you raise us up above fear and dread. Sometimes it feels like our own bodies and life circumstances are our worst enemies, walloping us with maladies, heart disease, mental darkness, disorientation, heart aches and heart breaks. We pray for those going through the thick and thin of it (…). Bring them through it all with joy, hope, faith, and the smile of your face. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you!

All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! / For those people-groups, organizations and institutions inside our nation, and those parties outside our country who seek to overthrow prudence, justice, fortitude, self-control, faith, hope and love, and seek to foster gluttony, lust, greed, anger, envy, sloth, and vainglory. Bring their endeavors to nothing, breaking their power to harm and maim, siphoning off that which fuels their fury. And bring them to know that you are the Lord, and that you have made Jesus head over all, so that they may now – not on the day of Judgment – but now, confess that Jesus is Lord and bow the knee to him. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you!

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? / Here, Lord, we pray for your church in all four corners of this big, wide world; to include Heritage, Dayspring and Deer Creek churches of Christ, Destiny Christian Center, and Edmond Freewill Baptist Church. May your Word be our praise, and you be our delight. You who are good, whose steadfast love endures forever, take us in hand to guide our aims, to keep us walking in the ancient paths, and in the good way (Jeremiah 6:16). Help us to sow for ourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love, and break up our fallow ground that you may come and rain righteousness on us: for you are our judge, you are our lawgiver, you are our king. You will save us (Hosea 10:12; Isaiah 33:22)! Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you!

I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life (Psalm 56). / Father, be with these young adults heading onward, outward, and upward. Help them to always remember whose they are, who they are and why they are. Oh, Lord God, that they would daily recall that you are exalted, for you dwell on high; that you fill Zion with justice and righteousness; you will be the stability of their times; abundance of salvation; wisdom, and knowledge; and that the fear of the LORD will always be their treasure (Isaiah 33:5-6). Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you!

All we ask in union with Jesus Christ your Son, and our Lord and Savior, as we pray together what he taught us, saying; Our Father…

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