BLESSING

Eternal God, our Father, great are thy promises to those who put their trust in Thee. We confess that there is so much that we do not understand. But we confess, too, that we have not claimed thy promises that are clear to us.

So we go on worrying, weary, and heavy laden, living in the dark stuffy room of self. Help us now to hear Jesus saying, "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Behold I stand at the door and knock.....". O God, blow like the wind through us this day to take away our staleness--our stuffiness--so that we can breathe freely in the new world of the Holy Spirit.

We thank you for all our blessings--for the blessing of your creation within us and all around us--for the joys of human fellowship--for those we love in our family and those who are our friends outside our families. We thank you for the priesthood of all believers within the family of God--that we are called to minister to each other in the name and the spirit of Christ. And, O Lord, may we so live and love here--and out yonder in the world--that many who are lost and lonely will find through us what they most need.

Our prayer today reaches to hospital rooms, to nursing homes, to prison cells, to the homes of those who are shut in by age or illness, to places or work where people find it hard to see the relation between work and worship--to youth seeking the meaning of life and often not finding an example of it in us who are older.

O Lord, break through all our barriers and let us see God high and lifted up--even on a cross--but able on Thy cross to draw all men to Thyself, where our burden shall drop from our backs into an empty tomb and never be seen again. We make our prayer in His name whom we say we adore. Help us to adore Him more. Amen.