Daily Prayers Thursday, 3 March 2022

A reading from Psalm 91

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.’

…

⁹ If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ ‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honour him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.’

Palms 91: 1–2 & 9–16 NIV®

Dear Lord, you are our refuge and our fortress, and in you we place our trust.
We praise you and bless you, and give you heartfelt thanks
that you are here to guard and guide us.

But let us not be complacent, thinking that so long as you are here to help us,
we need do no more.
To live in the shelter of the Most High is to accept your laws
and to strive to live according to your teaching,
to follow the example of your Son Jesus Christ, who
took himself into the wilderness to pray to you and to discern your will for him,
before embarking on your mission to bring your true gospel to all people.
To show the depth of your love for all your creation,
by suffering and dying to redeem his people and to grant us the opportunity of eternal life.

We pray that our Lenten studies, ‘Living on the Breadline’,
will enable us to understand the underlying causes of the inequalities
that force the vulnerable into poverty,
and to find new ways for us to help to bring about an end to poverty.
We pray, too, that through our studies we become aware of the ways we may,
whether wittingly or unwittingly, contribute to these inequalities, and seek to change our ways.

We pray, too, that the Lenten observances we choose
are not merely to help us feel good about ourselves.
Help us, in all we do, to keep our minds steadfastly on the love you always offer us
and always to live our lives so that through our lives we may share your love with those about us.

We gather these and all our prayers in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.

Amen

Robin & Pat Kyd