A PRAYER FOR THE STORM: SUNDAY GATHERING 5.14.23

Father,

We come to you, together this morning, knowing that we can come to you all the time, because of Jesus. 

We can come to you when it feels like we’re perishing. 

When we collapse from the endless tossing.

When we fear harm to our physical bodies.

When we are sinking without anything to hold onto.

When our faith is tested.

When the winds send us far off course.

When the waves devour us.

When we forget that we are already saved.

We often find ourselves believing that it’s up to us to keep this ship afloat. We frantically try to keep the water out–always scooping it out at a rate far slower than it comes in.  We can’t stay ahead of it.  And even without this storm, God, we’re sinking.  Despair, shame, and hopelessness threaten to drown us in our frantic work to stay out of the cold dark deep.

Will this storm stop?

Would we even know what to do with ourselves if it did?

And Lord, you know that even on the sunniest of days and calmest of seas–we’re prone to bringing on water. We may give our ships new paint and sails, scrub the decks spick and span, outfit it with the finest of hardware and straps, and have the most skilled and hardworking crew members on our team. But even when we think we are ok–like we’re pulling it all off–the cold. dark. deep. is still quietly trickling in through the cracks.

But God.  You saw our dead-set course towards destruction and gave us the True North of your Son.  You knew there was weakness in our frame and you shored it up with nails and a cross.  You see every. single. little crack and you fill it with the blood of Your Son.  You take the wasted years of wandering and tossing–and you restore them to us in eternity that has already started.  It’s right now. You foresee the collision paths of your hellbent children and you can restore relationships and trust.  You have raised dead men from the dark.  You have settled seas with a word. Who is like you?!

It is good to trust in you.  It is good to call out to you. To know where to go when we’re afraid. We know you can be found.  You are Proven and Faithful.  You. are. not. asleep. to. our. trouble.   You are in it with us.  Grow our faith.  Teach our hearts how to wonder at your power and to abide in that space you lead us to–that space beside still water–with You–where we can just be.

But God, could you also make it so that we could keep a light heart while carrying heavy loads? That we could laugh from our bellies while working diligently against the onboarding water?  That we’d know when to swim for our lives and when to float on our backs—face to the heavens.  As we look to the future, accepting it will be marked by more storms, could you help us to laugh at the days to come, secure in Your love? Our redemption is drawing near and your kingdom is already here. May it be true in us, God.

Amen.