My God, Whom I Seek - 13 April 2025
O God, you are my God; earnestly
I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and
weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than
life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your
name I will lift up my hands. Father, all that we
are about in our family worship, personal devotions, Sunday School classes, Catechism
classes, Worship assemblies, Care Groups, our involvement in works of mercy,
mission trips, VBS, and so forth; yes, all that we are about flows from our
craving to know you and be nearer to you, in all of your gracious goodness to
us. Draw us to you – this whole congregation, our friends in Lviv Ukraine in
all of it wartime deprivation – Doug and Masha Shepherd, their family and
Mission team. Along with your Church worldwide and Mayridge Baptist, Mount
Horeb, Mt. Lebanon, and Mt. Moriah Baptist Church. Slake our thirst for you;
refresh us that we may rise from our faintness; and reform us that we may
rightly live and rightly love. Thank you that, as Paul put it in Romans 6, we
who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard
of teaching to which we were committed, and, having been set free from sin, we
have become slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:17-18).
My soul will be satisfied
as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when
I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. Uphold
those who are troubled, tossing and turning on their beds because of their poor
health, their penetrating hurts or their paralyzing hauntedness. Take those who
are about to plunge into perdition and restrain them. Fill to the full with
your goodness those who are desperate and deprived. Hear the silent and stated
worries of your people (…). Answer our prayers, so that “in the shadow of
your wings” we may “sing for joy.”
But those who seek to
destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given
over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. But the
king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of
liars will be stopped. O God, who does not desire the
death of the wicked, but that they should turn and live (Ezekiel 18:23, 32):
save those who hate us and staunch those who seek to hurt us. Stop the mouths
of those who deliberately and devilishly pervert your truth. Arrest those who
use their powers to emasculate and eradicate equity and goodness. Guide our
country we love so dearly that the people and powerbrokers, citizens and
senators, juries and judges; masses and magistrates may all rejoice in you, and
would work toward uprightness, racial fairness, national integrity, and moral
industry. May we promote and protect justice and liberty for all – free born,
foreign born and unborn.[1]
And now we gather up our requests and pray as Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father…
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