Father,
You listen to us when we ask you to treat us with kindness and mercy. You have given us whatever strength we have to act - the insight to know what we ought to do and the energy to carry it out. You protect us all the time. Many circumstances in our lives are near-misses and when we stop and consider, we can see that you have shielded us. And then there are all the things that we have no way of knowing about that you spare us from all the time. There is no way to count how many meteorites haven’t pelted us from space, or how many microscopic organisms haven’t made us sick, or how many malicious people have not been given power over us. We have already placed our trust in you and yet as we live more days with you, we learn to trust you more and more. We are moved to joy when we think of your care for us and we honor you with our prayers of thanks, our testimonies to one another, and with our songs. You not only strengthen and protect us as individuals, but you strengthen your people as a whole and have given us a place to take refuge. We look forward to the day when you will rescue us for the final time and set us near yourself. You are our shepherd and we are delighted to be forever under your care.
We want to pray for those who are Christians in our city who work in institutions that do not honor you. You set Daniel among the Chaldeans. We read and wonder how he could possibly remain in such a role and not sin constantly by participating in their magical practices. Yet you strengthened him so that even to us, he is an exemplar of faithfulness and we aspire to be like him. And so we want to ask that you would do the same for those Christians in Toronto who hold authority in institutions permeated with ungodly ideology. Keep them thoroughly faithful. We think especially of those in government, psychologists and those in social work, those on review boards or committees, lawyers and judges, anyone who exercises administrative authority over any group of people. Keep them from being discouraged when they are surrounded by those who do not honor you and who do not consider to be right what you have said is right. Give them courage. Give them clarity to act judiciously - not the made up thing that people call justice, but to act according to the justice which is rooted in your character. Give those who hold such roles and act according to your will, a disproportionate influence in the organizations to which they belong. We know that it makes little difference to you to accomplish your purposes by many or by few or by the weak or by the strong. Do good to this city through them. Make Toronto a place where people can live quiet and peaceful lives, where people need not feel like they’re under constant threat, where people can easily earn a modest amount of money sufficient for their needs, where people have time and opportunity to devote themselves to good works, where people are free and able to speak with others about glorious gospel of Christ.
Remember that you made us from the dust. You breathed life into us, but our bodies don’t really belong to us. As your word says, we cannot make one of our hairs black or white. We cannot sustain our own life without the food and warmth and shelter of the world you put us in. We depend on you for our health as we depend on you for food. You allow doctors and even ourselves sometimes to participate in the work of comforting and sustaining our bodies, but we know that this is your grace to them to let them participate in the good work that you are doing. But our bodies are a wonder, conceived in your infinite mind, formed by your word, and animated by your breath. No one understands them thoroughly. And so despite humanity’s striving to live, your word stands that has appointed death to all. Yet you constantly show us great mercy in sustaining us and restoring us. We ask that you would heal the physical ailments among us in such a way that we may be able to say to one another, “God has done this”. Keep us from that strange ungrateful unbelief that whispers in our hearts, "it would have happened anway" We know how often we do not have because we do not ask. Rather help us to see clearly and be lavish in our praise. When we come near to the end of our lives, may we be able to look back at all the times that you healed us, and have certainty that your greatest act of healing is yet to come, when you will raise us up on the last day.
Please help us to be patient, both with others and with our circumstances. We sincerely desire godliness in our hearts, but we can act blindly in our impatience to free ourselves from something we ought to endure. We can end up committing sins we don’t even desire to do, especially with our words. Please forgive us. Strengthen our love. Help us to bear what is evil in others with equanimity. Let it be with sincerity. We are prone to sin on every side. Things that we seem to have outwardly endured with patience can sour in our heart and turn to bitterness and hatred. Teach us instead to pray for those who have made themselves our enemies. Help us to be like our Lord who loved his enemies, did good to those who hated him, and prayed for those who made him suffer. Please also spare us from that trick of the enemy to inflame the memory of a long past hurt in our minds long after we have already engaged the trial with patience. It is difficult to walk with such care and sobriety. Keep us being overwhelmed, but always in an attitude of silent prayer and aware of your presence.
We thank you for giving us Jesus, our compassionate advocate. We truly are the blessed ones, not because of our own attainments, but because our many sins have been covered, and forgiven, and will never be counted against us. May our words and songs and thoughts be pleasing to you this morning.