Deus Misereatur

(This was part of my letter to my congregation this week) As we have worked through the topic of prayer on Sunday evenings, I have said regularly that Christians in North America are some of the most whiny, complaining, shrill people there are. We worry about everything, pray about nothing, and complain without ceasing. I would add to this that our social environment in this country is becoming more and more ungrateful. Across the generations – from Boomers and GenX to Millenials and GenZ – we are increasingly thinking we’re entitled and have a right to prosperity, etc. Therefore, we grumble, grouse, and gripe, world without end.   But Scripture tells us that we Christians are to be some of the most thankful people in our country and community. In fact, thanksgiving is a centerpiece of the Faith. Being a thankful people is a serious, Gospel-driven, Christian trait, “ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in th...

  (For hardship): Almighty God, whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways. You never pledged us an easy life. You never guaranteed us unending success. And yet we are affirmed in Proverbs what we hear it in the Shorter Catechism, that as long as it serves for your glory and our own good, there is the promise of long life and prosperity. Therefore, we pray with, and pray for, those who are facing various hardships (…). Some are in deep desperation; others find themselves dented and debilitated; several are staggering; and not a few are stumped. O Lord, you who care about these and their predicament, bring them the provisions they are in need of. Send them hope and help. And may they all come to rise up and rejoice in you and your name. O Lord, hear our prayer.   (For family): Your Sacred Scriptures remind us constantly that you are a God who enters into a covenant with people – not a business contract, but adoption and a marriage! You often display y...

  O God, who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, who gives to all mankind life and breath and everything; and made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him, though you are actually not far from any one of us (Acts 17:24-27): we pray for all nations, including Ethiopia, Sudan, Peru, Bangladesh, and Ukraine. Superintend their national politics, economics, education, and security so that all may have the care they need, prosper and flourish, and come to “feel their way toward” you until the knowledge of the Lord may cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator, Sustainer and Sovereign over all, to whom each and every one of us must give an account of our actions in this life: please bless our nation, ...