"Hear My Prayer, O LORD" - 15 May 2016

From Psalm 143

Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. There are many, Lord, who have been beat down and beat up. We pray for those who have been battered and brutalized, some whom we name before you…may they find shelter and refuge; bring them help and healing. And enrich those who hold out their hands to provide support and sanctuary, especially the YWCA Women’s Shelter, Jesus House, City Rescue Mission, the Wonderfully Made Foundation, and others. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you.

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah. We implore your loving care, intervention, and saving help in the lives of those we love and know who have turned their backs to you…; those who sit in darkness and dwell in the region and shadow of death…; those who are in utter despair…; those thinking dark and deadly thoughts and are on the verge of acting on them…; save them, O Lord! And give us the opportunities and abilities to reach them with your care, mercy and Gospel. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you.

Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! Lord Jesus, remember your Church, with this congregation, Gospel Celebration Fellowship; Central 7^th Day Adventist Church; North Highland Adventists Church; and the 7^th Day Adventist churches of Edmond and OKC; May we find our rest in you, our strength and hope. Guide us in the way we should go. And be with the 2016 Methodist General Conference as they square off over the LGBTQI agenda. May your Spirit move over their conference, your Scriptures guide their deliberations, and your Son rule over their decisions so that they will officially and firmly hold to the moral standards you established for their good.  Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you.

For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant. And so we pray for our own nation! What a mess, Lord! Forgive our country and our leaders for trying to overthrow decency and morality, to rewrite your criterion for marriage, which we have been doing since at least the 1940s with the rise of divorce, the free-love crusade of the 1960s, the promiscuity of the 1980s to the present! Grant this nation to come to its senses, recognize its follies, and return to healthy principles of right and wrong. Preserve and protect us from all enemies foreign and domestic. And be with this State in the midst of all of its budget woes, and restore economic robustness to Oklahoma. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you!