Jesus is Lord
Weekly Worship
Prayers of the Heart
Precious Lord Jesus we come before your Throne of Grace with Worship in our hearts. Sovereign Lord we are constantly reminded You have given us the greatest gift of all mankind, paid with your perfect agape love, dying in our place on the cross, suffering the halls of satans hell. All we are requested to do is enter through the door of offering and accepting your gift. Thank you Lord for giving us, such an amazing gift of Love.
Our prayers over these last weeks has been about the coronavirus that has affected so many lives around the world, lost lives, mourning families, unable to say goodbye. Those whose lives were saved by the Flying Doctor service, emergency nurses and doctors, these lives will never forget their experience. Our prayer is that Christians will be guided to help and care for them, and encourage them to move forward.
We would also bring before you those people who suffer all forms of disabilities and sickness in our own fellowship and those around us and their carers. We ask Lord that you will be with them giving them rest from pain and depression. People and friends we know who are suffering from aloneness not able to have the regular contacts in everyday life, remind us to keep in contact in whatever way we can.
If our hearts are so overwhelmed at present let us remember the dear Holy Spirit given to us to interpret our thoughts and bring them to you Lord to give us clarity.
For our Country and State Leaders who have had to make decisions knowing that they will be in our best interests. Please give them clear direction for the ongoing minefield before us all in Australia and worldwide.
We pray for our missionaries, here and overseas caught up in this pandemic with few of the medical helps available to them, answer their prayers for help and decision making.
As we come to the cessation of this prayer time may our hearts be overloaded with your love, encouragement and guidance. Bring us Lord in contact with those who need to share in the warmth of this love and encouragement.
With worship and praise on our lips we thank you Lord that you walk with us every day in our every waking hour and watching over us in our repose and rest.
We Pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Jenny Fahlbusch
A Prayer for help in Trouble
Please read: Psalm 13
During our life’s journey we will all inevitably experience things that trouble us, challenge us, or maybe just leave us feeling like God doesn’t care anymore. We are in good company. 1 Samuel is a fascinating read explaining the events David experienced prior to being installed as the king of Israel. Why should we be interested in a king of another nation from another time? Because even though he loved God, David still experienced troubles, challenges and the feeling of being abandoned by his God. There may have been times when you have felt like this to.
v1 How long, Yahweh - will you put me out of mind permanently?, how long will you hide your face from me?
What a blessing his trials have proven to be for us. Many of the Psalms have been written by King David upon his reflection of his life’s journey and the intimate role that Yahweh played.
Verse 5 really stood out to me. The Message version reads:
v5 I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms— I’m celebrating your rescue.
It got me thinking – what does throwing oneself into the arms of our loving God look like?
When our children were little they might run along a wall, or stand on a park bench and call out “catch me Dad” and immediately leap in my direction from whatever they were on. Naturally I would reach out my arms and catch them in mid-flight. (They are a bit big for that now J). The fact is, they showed not a shadow of doubt that they would be caught. Their confidence and trust was absolute. That’s the way God calls us to be in our relationship with Him.
The Amplified Bible describes David’s response as follows:
v5 But I have trusted and relied on and been confident in Your lovingkindness and faithfulness;
My heart shall rejoice and delight in Your salvation.
What happens when we ‘grow up’? We seem to lose this absolute confidence to ‘jump’ into the arms of Jesus. Why is this so? Maybe we have experienced loss, hardship or disappointment. Maybe success didn’t look like we thought it should. We begin to doubt that God wants to ‘catch’ us any-more. We wonder whether we are even worth catching at all?
I’m convinced that these thoughts never go through the mind of God. If He doesn’t want to catch us he would never have bothered sending the Prophets, and certainly would not have risked coming to us in the flesh of Jesus. If he didn’t think we were worth catching why would Jesus go to the cross and die for us – while we were still sinners?
Last week we looked at the passage from Matthew 10:24-39, and in verse 29-31 we find the blessed assurance of how much God cares for us.
29 You can buy two sparrows for only a copper coin, yet not even one sparrow falls from its nest without the knowledge of your Father. Aren’t you worth much more to God than many sparrows? 30–31 So don’t worry. For your Father cares deeply about even the smallest detail of your life.
So let us be absolute in our confidence and trust that God considers us worthy of his ‘catching us’.
As we shift our focus from our situation to all that our gracious God is, we are freed to rejoice as David describes in Psalm 13:6
v6 I will sing my song of joy to you, the Most High,
for in all of this you have strengthened my soul.
My enemies say that I have no Savior,
but I know that I have one in you!
May we all throw ourselves headlong into God’s arms, and celebrate our rescue through Jesus. Amen.
Ponder the words from TIS 155 How Great Thou Art
In particular there are wonderful words in an unpublished verse:
When burdens press, and seem beyond endurance,
Bowed down with grief, to Him I lift my face;
And then in love He brings me sweet assurance:
'My child! for thee sufficient is my grace'.
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Tim Prior