I live in a small community, a community that is still a bit like the wild west.
We live where kids are "our" kids, we claim them all, and all claim them
"ours."
Our kids are wild, they live life on full throttle, running wide open all the time.
We cheer "our" kids on and cuss them out, all of them, not just our name sake, all of them.
We know them, and their parents, and grand parents, and we know where they live and how they live.
When we see "our" kids do good, we grab them and squeeze them tight.
When we see them step out of line, we grab them and squeeze them right.
Small town people live in big wide and open spaces, and they live and love big and wide open.
Our community is feeling crushed by loss of life and broken bodies.
Our hearts break for "our" family, friends, and neighbors.
Though many of us have not suffered the loss of a close family member, it hits very close to home.
Many may not have been directly affected by the loss of this loved one, but we are all effected.
Though many of us have not suffered the loss of a close family member, it hits very close to home.
Many may not have been directly affected by the loss of this loved one, but we are all effected.
I have seen so many friends posting:
Pray - Prayers - Praying
We know we need to pray, we know we need God's help,
but sometimes people have lost so much, they are at a loss for words,
so here's my prayer for my friends:
Father,
The hearts you once gave a beat, and the lungs you filled, have been stopped and shattered, beat up and deflated.
We need you Lord, we need your help!
Our faces are on the ground, we are scared to even look up - we are devastated by loss and pain and we feel fear.
God I pray this fear we feel turns to a holy fear, fear of a powerful and Holy God that gives and takes away.
Jesus, you promised to send us a comforter, the Holy Spirit, to comfort us.
We are giving you our broken heart and cashing in on that promise.
We need you, we need your Comforter to blanket us with your peace.
Lord, we need your help, please keep us from reaching and grasping for all the world's comforts that are only temporary and will only turn on us, and cause us more pain and suffering.
Holy Spirit we need your comfort!!!
Cover us!!
Father,
We are flattened, we are helpless, we are hurt and scared.
While we are down here so low, laying flat on our backs or prostrate on our faces;
crushed under the weight of grief and suffering,
come and help us, we need you.
Forgive us for being so arrogant to think we can live even one minute without you. Forgive us for taking our lives and the lives of our loved ones for granted. Bring us back to you.
Show us what to do, we will do anything.
We are so scared and full of fear; turn that fear to fear of you, fear that brings awe of you.
Help us to live in awe of your power and your grace.
How are you so good to give us these hearts that beat and these bodies full of life and then be so cruel to let them break and stop them short?
We don't get it, and we don't like it.
We are turning to you, because we need you and we want to believe that you are good.
Help us to see you, and know you, and experience your love and your healing in our hearts and our lives.
We want to be mad because we are hurt, but how can we be mad at you?
You gave us the very lives that we are grieving for.
If it hadn't have been for you, we would have never known the love and joy of life,
or the crushing pain and devastation of loss.
We don't know what to do. We are turning to you.
Help us LORD.
Our Father God,
Help us to remember you are our creator and giver of life.
Help us to remember and celebrate the gift of life of the son you gave to a family, friends, and community to enjoy for a solid 15 years.
Help us to remember and give thanks for the gift of sons and daughters.
You gave the world your SON 2000 years ago, that through the life, death and resurrection of your ONE and only SON,
JESUS CHRIST
"OUR" LORD AND SAVIOR
we can enjoy ETERNAL LIFE with YOU.
Help us to turn to you and trust in you with our lives; you gave us our lives and you paid for our sins with the life of your only son so we can live free.
Help us to live free, free of sin and shame and guilt and pain.
GIVE US HOPE.
Help us to see you, and know that you are good and merciful and full of grace.
We don't understand, and we don't know what to do......so please
HELP US TO TRUST IN YOU.
Lamentations 3:16-26 (ESV)
16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness[a] is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.”
and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness[a] is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.”
19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[b]
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
Again....just so there is no confusion, the loss of life and broken bodies I'm referring to, was not in our family, but a very dear family that is dearly loved by many.
2 comments:
Justin read this devotional to me this morning and thought it so fitting:
"O that I knew where I might find him!"
Job 23:3
In Job's uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father's face. His first prayer is not "O that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!" nor even "O that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!" but the first and uppermost cry is, "O that I knew where I might find Him, who is my God! that I might come even to his seat!" God's children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. "He that hath made his refuge God," might serve as the title of a true believer. A hypocrite, when afflicted by God, resents the infliction, and, like a slave, would run from the Master who has scourged him; but not so the true heir of heaven, he kisses the hand which smote him, and seeks shelter from the rod in the bosom of the God who frowned upon him. Job's desire to commune with God was intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation. The patriarch turned away from his sorry friends, and looked up to the celestial throne, just as a traveller turns from his empty skin bottle, and betakes himself with all speed to the well. He bids farewell to earth-born hopes, and cries, "O that I knew where I might find my God!" Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides. Turning away with bitter scorn from earth's hives, where we find no honey, but many sharp stings, we rejoice in him whose faithful word is sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. In every trouble we should first seek to realize God's presence with us. Only let us enjoy his smile, and we can bear our daily cross with a willing heart for his dear sake.
Thank you so much Shauna. That was beautiful and so fitting. Running home.
Post a Comment