Daily Prayers Friday, 15 July 2022
Good Day, Cornerstone People, on this hot, high summer morning. We take as our theme today REFRESHMENT – the restoration of balance in body and soul.
Thank you, Lord, for the beauty of awakening from refreshing sleep. Help our city to enjoy an enormous, relaxing exhale when children can look forward to a joyful summer, hopeful for holidays. May we savour this time of refreshment. AMEN
Words from Psalm 23 – he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
The photo today is from Corton, Suffolk where we are learning again about refreshment and restoration. It’s just short of 3 years since our last holiday and it has taken a full day to learn again about refreshment: to sit and enjoy the view, to observe the world in detail just to nourish my spirit, to be without a schedule, to breathe deeply of an atmosphere that is not my responsibility to maintain. This release from the everyday is important for my soul. All the layers of life that separate me from feeling the presence of God deep within fall away. My God and I can be at peace together.
Come into my heart, Lord, and lead me in quiet. Refresh my soul.
AMEN.
Words from 1 Corinthians 10:13
So far you have faced no trial beyond human endurance; God keeps faith and will not let you be tested beyond your powers, but when the test comes he will at the same time provide a way out and so enable you to endure.
We all have had a couple of years endurance practice – a test of faith and fortitude. A holiday enables us to run away for a bit in the knowledge that we will return better able to face whatever we may need to encounter.
Keep my heart tuned to your message, Lord, as the curve balls of life keep coming always faster.
Protect me during the catch and return, for I am always safe in you, and grant me a peaceful time out.
Refresh my soul.
AMEN.
Words from Psalm 121
If I lift up my eyes to the hills, where shall I find help? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot stumble; he who guards you will not sleep. The guardian of Israel never slumbers, never sleeps. The Lord will guard your life, as you come and go, now and forevermore.
Well, I’m lifting mine out to the sea, beyond the rocky cliff, to flat calm. The clouds will roll in at lunchtime to cool the fierce heat with a gentle breeze.
Show your salvation to people hurting from war and oppressive government.
Help people suffering from the oppression of illness or animosity.
Show the rulers of this world and the leaders of our community
the beauty of an ordered life where refreshment can be taken in peace and safety.
Refresh their souls.
AMEN
The beauty of a holiday is that it restores the quality of hope: the knowledge that when I return to my life, it will be better than memory tells it.
Refresh my soul.
AMEN
Words from Romans 15:13
And may God, who is the ground of hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you lead the life of faith until, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you overflow with hope.
Cheryl Montgomery
