A Prayer For When It’s Too Much…

Some days are just TOO MUCH! Too much arguing, too much paranoia and suspicion, too many labels and judgments. TOO MUCH! When those days hit me full in the face, I often grow withdrawn and silent. Prayer seems like a thing other people do. When this happens to me, I turn to the scriptures. Inevitably I find a passage that matches my state of mind. If the pandemic and political unrest feel like TOO MUCH - here is a psalm that soothes me into prayer. It reminds me that God is listening even if he is silent. God has habits I can count on - inevitable, true things about God - that I can trust in, even if I lose trust in everything else. Let us pray...

Help, God—I’ve hit rock bottom! Master, hear my cry for help!

Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.

If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?

As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.

I pray to God—my life a prayer—and wait for what he’ll say and do.

My life’s on the line before God, my Lord,waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.

O Israel, wait and watch for God— with God’s arrival comes love, with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.

No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

Psalm 130, The Message