Evening Prayer, Thursday, 24 June 2021

Psalm 130

¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
² Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

³ If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
⁶ I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

⁷ Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
⁸ He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

NIV®

Dear God, we frequently find ourselves out of our depth, and floundering to keep on top of things.
We know that we have only to turn to you and pray for your guidance,
and you will hear us and give us the strength and resourcefulness to overcome our problems.

So many times we make wrong choices and wrong decisions, which result in our doing wrong.
Yet you are always ready to forgive us, so that, with due reverence, we may serve you faithfully.
Too often we are hasty, and rush into things without thinking through the consequence;
grant us the patience to await your guidance, so that we can see the right road to take.
At other times we are too hesitant, and miss the opportunity to do good, because we rely solely
on our own inadequate knowledge and understanding, instead of calling to you.

We know that your unfailing love and full redemption have been given to us
through the death and resurrection of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
It is a gift so valuable and yet so freely given by you that we too easily
choose to forget what a wonderful gift it is.

We, humanity, continue to squander so many of the gifts you have showered upon us.
You have given us a wonderful, beautiful world to live in, yet we continue to plunder its resources
with no heed to the consequences, until we are faced with problems on a global scale,
and yet we seem incapable of taking the necessary action.
Help us all to recognise that it is the choices that we make in our everyday lives:
what we buy in the shops, what we choose to eat and drink, that creates the problem.
May we learn to ensure that natural resources are conserved,
that food production and energy generation are done in ways that are truly sustainable.

We pray that scientists, world leaders, international corporations, and ordinary people
will take to heart the lesson of this pandemic, that no-one must be left behind as we all strive
for a secure future for humanity and for our planet earth.
Pious words must be turned into swift and effective action.
We must all recognise that what we have in common is far more important than our differences.

We ask all these prayers in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen