Word of Encouragement (07/18/2022)

Another prayer of John Baillie’s to begin a new week:

“O LORD my God, I kneel before you in humble adoration as I set out to face the tasks and interests of another day. Thank you for the blessed assurance that I shall not be called upon to face them alone or in my own strength, but that at all times I will be accompanied by your presence and strengthened by your grace. Thank you that throughout our human life run the footprints of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who for our sake was made flesh and tasted all the different challenges of humanity. Thank you that as I go about my work today, I can be conscious of the spiritual presence of the heavenly host. Thank you for the saints who rest from their labors, the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, for the noble martyrs, for all holy and humble people, for my own dear departed friends, especially _____. As I remember them I bless and adore your great name. I rejoice, O God, that you have called me to be a member of the Church of Christ. Let the awareness of this holy fellowship follow me wherever I go, cheering me in loneliness, protecting me in company, strengthening me against temptation, and encouraging me to act in love and justice.

“O Lord Jesus Christ, you called the disciples to shine as lights in a dark world. In shame and repentance of heart I acknowledge before you the many faults and weaknesses of which we are guilty, we who in this generation represent your Church to the world. I especially acknowledge my own part in this. Forgive me, I pray, the feebleness of my own witness, the meagerness of my giving and my loving, and the mediocrity of my zeal. Make me a more worthy follower of the One who cared for the poor and the oppressed. Let your power, O Christ, be in us all, to share the world’s suffering and redress its wrongs. Amen.”

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