Praying the Psalms
Psalm 14
Lord, I pray for those who do not believe you exist. I pray for those of us that do believe you exist but live as though you don’t. Help me see the ways in which I behave wickedly and foolishly. Stir in me a desire for wisdom and goodness.
It makes you sick to see the horrible ways we treat each other. We hurt each other based on race, gender, sexuality, and a host of other categories that make us think we have the right to wield power and control over others you’ve created. We don’t want to make you sick. Forgive us for the ways that we have hurt and continue to damage your beloved creation. We ask your grace as you patiently and constantly reveal to us the ways in which we can treat your creation and its creatures with compassion and love.
We want to do good. Too often, we do not. Forgive us.
You see everything. You witness it all. We can hide nothing from you, not even in the deepest parts of our hearts. We still try. We turn our backs on you and determine to do our own thing, go our own ways rather than your way. The outcome so often bears rotten, rancid fruit.
Please reveal to us what really matters to you. When it is revealed, give us the courage to walk that road, often the narrow and less traveled road. We devour each other trying to satisfy our hunger for you. We take the wrong paths. We search in the wrong places. So, we end up devouring the easiest things at hand, each other.
The reality we build up around ourselves is far too often not the reality you want for us. We ignore you and find ourselves lost. We show the world a brave face, but we are scared. Without you, we have false courage. Our hearts race at the thought of being without you.
There are those who try to take away our hope. They laugh at us. They mock us. Sometimes we are the ones trying to steal other people’s hope. But you are the strongest shelter in the heaviest storm, and nothing can be stolen that you give freely. You surround those who are poor, needy, and troubled with your sheltering love. Surround us today.
We feel bound to the awfulness of this world. Make a new day of deliverance. When we recognize that you have broken all of our bonds, we rejoice. We are delighted. We pray for release in the name of Jesus the Chainbreaker. AMEN.
StainedGlassRebel 