Speaking in the Light – 1 0-27

This Is My Prayer for You
Dear Lord, today I want to pray for my readers. Even though I have never met so many of them, I feel like I know them because of this avenue that we have been communicating with one another through the Herald these last 14 years. I know that they come from so many different addresses and so many various backgrounds.
I also know that they must be experiencing a myriad of diverse circumstances at this given moment as I bow my knee to You. I am sure that some are smiling with a countenance so bright they have to feel like they are touching the heights of heaven.
I hope that as they move throughout this day, they will be able to bottle up in their heart of hearts the purest of an electric and ecstatic joy that sometimes this life brings. On the other hand, I know that there are probably way too many pinned down in the deepest of the pits as I cry out to you on their behalf.
I am sure that they would settle for even the glow that a match light would bring them rather than feel that they are stumbling around in no light at all. Oh God- please let them know that under your omniscient sight and compassionate care they are never truly in the dark when it comes to You.
I know Lord that it is easy to think that our outward circumstances are a good gauge of whether we are being blessed by You or not. I have too many times summarized by my surroundings that You must be mad at me because of what is taking place in my world.
I have felt more than once like You have banished me to go and stand in the proverbial corner of life’s classroom.
You see, when all goes well and good things are falling nicely into our laps, we assume that You must be loving us lots on those given days.
But when all hell breaks loose, as it does quite often on this earth, and we can’t even get our shoes on the right feet- never mind walk across a room without tripping all over ourselves, well, we think we must have done something wrong to make You so mad at us.
But that is not correct logic or truth at all. For I know from my own history that we humans seem to get to know You better in the midst of the stormy days when we are forced to find shelter in Somebody so much bigger than we are. For those today that are walking in the shadows Lord, please remind them clearly that You have not left the building.
Touch them in the ways that will strengthen their inner frames so that they will not fall no matter how hard those winds blow! Give them hope Lord Jesus that this too will pass and while weeping is very real and does last a night time- joy does return and come in the morning when the mourning has passed for good!
Lord I also pray for the children of Cape May County. Protect them Lord as too many of them have been forced by their culture to have had to grow up way too fast. Let them be little Lord! Keep them from experimenting with adult ways, way before their time.
And for those teens that today are lonely or don’t feel like they measure up- or are not making the grade, please let them see a glimpse of who You made them to be before it gets too late!
Let them know that You don’t make any second rate people and everything You do is a masterful masterpiece! Let them hear the cheers of heaven to drown out the cheap shots of the earthly crowds.
Lord send every child a holy and safe hug in human form. And please keep them from harm’s way and from missing out on the entire adventure that You have designed with them in mind.
And if we see a young person today, may we show them what adults who love them look like. Let them know and see through us what unconditional, no strings attached love looks like.
This is not a perfect place Lord. I know that! There is no such place as the ideal home and the church that has no problems at all. We are fallen humans who need a big dose of Your divine grace. Thank you that there is mercy in our wilderness.
There will be hypocrites and selfish minded individuals who will do their best to try to drag us down into missing the magic and the miracles of this day.
There will be many temptations that will attempt to force us to keep our eyes fixed to the ground when our hopes and our futures are written across the sky. Lift up our gaze Oh Lord and let us see the beauty of Your creation that has been showcased all around us.
May we stop trying to find our fix on a lifeless television and get out in the midst of an autumn night and see the stars that fill the universe. I can hear You crying out to us, “Look up to the heavens kids, and just believe I AM… For if you promise to keep Me first, you will never doubt I can.”
This is a precious season and we have been ordained to walk this moment for such a time as this. Help us to see what we can be together with You.
Help us to not live with a chip on our shoulder but with a redeemed innocence of hope in our heart. Please God, let us not leave what should be done today undone because we were preoccupied and too busy working on a building when our real calling is the body of people that live in or midst.
Oh Lord, please let Your will be done today in my backyard, just like it is being carried out in Your house today. And please give us this day our daily bread and help us be grateful and thankful and not whiny people. And please forgive us our sins as we need to forgive others who will sin against us.
And remind us that forgiveness isn’t cheap or just carelessly letting somebody off the hook. It is us letting go of a burden that we know will destroy us if we try to carry what was only meant for You and You alone. Thank You for taking on our sin so that we might know what freedom really is. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Please Lord, don’t let us forfeit what is to come because we got too caught up in what will never be. And thanks for listening and for caring about these precious people I get to write to every week…Show them Lord how real You are, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit I pray, Amen.
Write Pastor Rudy pastorrudytlc@comcast.net