Pray in Troubling Times

[00:00:00] We thank you for the truth that speaks into our lives, to change our minds, to conform us to reality, to the truth, so that we might see without eyes that are clouded, so that we might not suppress your truth in unrighteousness, so that we might cling to the way and the truth and the life that is our savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. We ask, O Lord, that you would increase and perfect our communion with you today, that as we survey the wondrous cross, we would rejoice, knowing all that you have done for us. And that we would remember that in all times and in every way we can cry out to you and that you promised to answer us in him, preparing us for a glorious and eternal conclusion, a worship and a praise of you that will last forever, a new heavens and a new earth in which we will forever rejoice and enjoy pleasures at your right hand forevermore. Strengthen our hope in Christ today. Strengthen our love for you and for our neighbor. And we ask that you would do so through the reading and preaching of your word. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:20] If you're able, please remain standing and let's turn our attention to psalm 54. [00:02:01] Psalm 54. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Let's give our attention to it. [00:02:11] It begins with this introduction to the choir master with stringed instruments, a maskill of David when the ziphites went and told Saul, is not David hiding among us? [00:02:23] O God, save me by your name and vindicate me by your might. O God, hear my prayer. Give ear to the words of my mouth, for strangers have risen against me. Ruthless men seek my life. They do not set God before themselves. [00:02:42] Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the upholder of my life. He will return the evil to my enemies. In your faithfulness, put an end to them with a free offering I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. [00:03:00] For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies. [00:03:07] Amen. [00:03:09] You may be seated. [00:03:29] For those of you who know Phoenix, I have a phoenix story for you this morning. [00:03:35] One time when I was in, I think I was in high school, I was. I went to kind of Camelback Mountain area to hike. I wasn't. I was by myself. I wasn't exactly on Camelback Mountain, but kind of on one of the nearby hills, mountains near there. Anyway, I'm hiking around on Camelback Mountain and I decided to take this trail, and then I take another trail, then I take another trail and then all of a sudden I. I'm lost, basically. [00:04:04] It was a really difficult situation. The further I went, the more uncomfortable I felt and the more precarious a situation I found myself in. If you know that mountain, you know that there are large rocks in some places. It's kind of like bouldering. And so I find myself as a non rock climber all of a sudden, doing rock climbing and without gear, with some whatever tennis shoes I happen to have on. Kind of hanging on for dear life, really wondering what's the next foothold or grip going to be. Also knowing, you know, this is pre cell phones and my parents didn't know where I was, and on and on and on. I'm sure my mother would not be happy hearing this story. Anyway, I'm out there and all of a sudden I found myself in this very strange situation where on the one hand, I knew exactly where I was. I was on Cameloback Mountain. I could see the city around me. You're not that far from everything. And there's all this. And yet there I was, feeling very alone, very scared. [00:05:12] And I prayed. I said, lord, I don't know what to do. I'm getting weak. I don't know what to grab onto. I don't know how to get out of this. I was afraid I was going to fall. And somehow I found a grip after that and moved from one thing to the next and then bushwhacked my way a mile or half a mile or something to a parking lot where eventually I was able to go home. [00:05:37] Sometimes we find ourselves in these difficult situations where we say, this is it. I don't know what the next step is. I don't know what the next thing to do is. And David finds himself in a similar situation, kind of impossible situation, where he doesn't know how this is going to work out. [00:05:57] The introduction to the psalm tells us when David was hiding of David, when the ziphites went and told Saul, is not David hiding among us? [00:06:12] The context for what's going on is that David has been on the run. He's been on the run trying to get away from Saul, who's trying to kill him for no good reason. [00:06:24] Saul has got this thing in his heart where he needs, as he understands that he needs to pursue David, he needs to destroy David. Despite David being a help to him, despite David serving him, despite his own son, Jonathan loving him, best friends, working together, covenanting with one another, all of these things. It's a tough situation for David. He's not done anything wrong. And yet this king, with this army and these mighty men are trying to kill him. He also knows that he's the rightful king. God has anointed him. God has called him. God has allowed him to do great things in his name. And he knows that one day he will be kingdom. [00:07:14] And so he's on the run. He's on the run in a wilderness not too far different from our own wilderness areas. [00:07:23] Can you imagine being out in the desert trying to get away from someone who's trying to kill you? That would be scary, right? Can you imagine trying to live off the animals and the land and whatever hospitality you might be able to find along the way? Can you imagine being out on the rocks, in caves, in challenging places, just trying to survive? Now, he wasn't alone. He had his own mighty men with him. He had people who were helping and protecting him, but at the same time, they were also running with him. [00:08:05] Well, he finds himself in this place, in this land of the ziphites. And you can probably guess from the introduction what happened. They sent word to Saul. Is not David hiding among us? And we find this happening not once, but twice in the scriptures. In one Samuel, which we'll eventually get to, he goes and he's hiding among these people. Wherever you are, even in the most remote places, there's always people around. And sometimes in the most remote places, because that's where people always see you, right? The people who live there, the people that know. Have you ever had somebody drive into your neighborhood and you know that they're there? They don't necessarily see you, right? [00:08:50] But if you are walking in a place, right, the neighbors know what's going on. [00:08:55] Well, the ziphites, for one reason or another, they know David is there. And instead of protecting him, helping him, ignoring him, they use their information to go to Saul and say, found him. He's right here. [00:09:10] So this is a very frustrating situation for David because he's trying to hide, he's trying to run. And now these ziphites are telling Saul where he's at. What's he supposed to do? [00:09:22] He's already in the wilderness. Where else is he supposed to go? He keeps moving around from place to place, and he finds himself. [00:09:32] He cannot even hide. [00:09:35] As these spies and others tell Saul where he's at. [00:09:41] He cries out. So what does he do? He cries out to the Lord. [00:09:46] He cries out to God. [00:09:49] In this short psalm, which is very direct, it begins, o God, save me by your name and vindicate me by your might. David didn't just wander onto a path like I did. He's being pursued, and he's being pursued wrongly. He wants salvation. He wants his life protected. He wants to live, but he also wants to be vindicated. He wants his reputation intact. [00:10:16] He doesn't want the things that he's done in the name of the Lord, the life that he's lived in the name of the Lord, to be sullied. [00:10:29] And so what does he do? [00:10:31] Well, he prays. [00:10:34] Now, I don't know for 100% sure that David wrote this psalm in exactly this form at exactly this moment. Right. It's possible that he prayed and then revised his prayer later. It's possible that he wrote some of this and then came back and fixed it and changed it in some ways to express this time, to talk about what was happening in that moment. But whatever we do with regard to the exact form of the psalm and exact when it was written, we know that it was written, that it comes from this place of David praying. He says it. He's crying out, he's asking for help. And he does this throughout his life. Over and over and over again, we see the Lord answering David's prayers, saving him, vindicating him. David says this himself in verse seven. He has delivered me from every trouble, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my enemies. David's reflecting on the past, and he says, there's some things that I know are true about my goddess, but I do think that they're given David's skill as a musician, as a poet, given David, given the way that the psalm is written, that it's likely that at least some, if not all of the psalm was written in this moment. And I think that's worth meditating on for this reason when we find ourselves in really difficult situations, and sometimes it's difficult to stop and pray, at least it seems difficult for some reason. [00:12:18] But David sets a really good example here. [00:12:21] Here in this moment, right? He doesn't have a nice office space. He doesn't have a place to sit down and rest. He's in the wilderness. He's on the run. And yet he says, I'm going to stop and I'm going to make time to pray. [00:12:36] And if he wrote this psalm at this time, he doesn't just pray. The man composes. He writes. He employs his skill as an artist, as a poet, as a musician. And he says, I'm going to spend some time thinking about this, which is a very David thing to do, a very godly thing to do. He doesn't just cry out in a moment and say, lord, save me. Which would, of course, be a great prayer. Prayer, and is prayed throughout the scriptures and throughout the centuries as the Lord's people rely on the Lord. But David takes time here to write, to compose, to form, to shape, to think about the situation that he's in. [00:13:21] He talks about his enemies in verse three, and he says, they do not set God before themselves. [00:13:27] David's doing the opposite. [00:13:30] In a moment of great difficulty, in a moment of this impossible situation, David sets God before himself, not like controlling God, but in his own heart. Right? Changing his path, conforming his thoughts, setting before himself of the Lord and the things that he has promised and the things that he does. This is a really good practice, and I want to encourage you in it, not just in times of great difficulty, but at all times. [00:14:06] I met with a friend this week who every day, at the end of his days journals, and I said, well, what do you do in your journals? And he says, I write out a prayer. I said, like your internal thoughts or words to God. And he says, words to God. It's like an email. I just. I'm emailing God. Except instead of, you know, there's no email address. I don't need one. I just put it, I write it down. I write down my prayers. And he does it every day. [00:14:37] And he was, and he said, totally recommends it. And he's not the first person to say this. I'm sure you've heard this as well. The practice of going to the Lord, not just in difficult moments, but in all times, in everything, over and over again, is so good. And David is a good example of this here. [00:14:58] Let's look at these few verses for a few moments and think about some of the things that he says. [00:15:04] In verses one and two, we have a call for salvation, as I said, for his life and for his reputation. A call to God to hear and to respond, to work in this moment and respond to the words of his mouth. [00:15:24] This reminds us that God is powerful and able. We should pray to him in all times of trouble. [00:15:31] The might of the Lord and the omniscience of the Lord are highlighted here. David prays to God because he is mighty. David prays to God because God does hear his prayers. This is a really amazing thing, I think, to think about in light of David's context. Right. Saul can't figure out where David is except by getting word from someone else. And there must have been some back channel ways of communicating or something, because we read later that Jonathan Saul's son is somehow able to find David in the wilderness. [00:16:10] My point is this difficulty of communication, of getting messages and all these sort of things are highlighted in this story. How do we find people? How do we communicate with them? How do we avoid them? These are all big questions. And here David is, and he just prays to the Lord. And that's as simple as it is. The simplicity is almost easy to overlook, not only in this psalm, but in our lives. The Lord simply hears us. We don't have to find some back channel method of communication. We don't have to use spies to find out where he is. He doesn't have to figure out where we are, look all over the world, or use various resources. He just knows, and he's with us always. [00:16:53] Wherever we go, in the most public places, in the most private places, in the morning, at night, in our homes and out. The Lord knows where we are and he's with us. [00:17:08] Praying to him in some ways is no challenge at all when compared with other situations. The challenge is not access as the Lord has given himself to us. The challenge is in our hearts. It's in us not calling on him, not asking, or as James said, asking as we ought. [00:17:29] Verse three tells us, then, the trouble that he is in this word, strangers, is probably better translated, insolent. And it's a connection that's made in other passages of scripture. Scripture, including the psalms, the insolence or the insolent ones have risen against me. Ruthless men seek my life. [00:17:50] To be insolent means to be rude, arrogant. It means to lack respect. [00:17:57] Ruthless means to not have any pity, not have any compassion, to be cruel. [00:18:03] And these things are connected, and they're connected because of this last thing. They do not set God before themselves. [00:18:13] There is an important reminder here for us, important caution against pride. [00:18:19] Or we could say it this way against atheism, when we push God aside and refuse to recognize his rule over our lives, his right and authority to tell us what to do and how to live when we decide it's all about me and I'm going to do what I want when I want. Like those described in James, what happens? Ruthlessness happens. A lack of pity and compassion on others you do not have, and so you murder. James says Saul, does not have what he wants, does not have what he thinks he needs. He feels threatened by David, and so what does he do? He is ruthless. He goes after him, and he seeks to take his life unjustly. [00:19:08] This happens whenever, and not just in political and military kinds of things, but in our own hearts and even the smallest and subtle ways in our own lives. [00:19:19] When we set, when our hearts become prideful, we become ruthless. [00:19:25] And that pride is because we're not setting God before our eyes. [00:19:30] In his biblical theology, Gerhardis Voss says, pride is, in its essence, a form of self deification. [00:19:38] It's saying, I'm God. I decide. It's a kind of idolatry. And because of that, pride not only puts us at war with other people, it puts us at war with God, and it makes us blind to the danger that we are. In verses four and five tell us why we don't need to fear our enemies, but put our faith in God. Why? [00:20:07] Because he is our upholder. The Lord is the upholder of my life, David says, and he will return to my enemies, or, sorry, he will return the evil to my enemies. So these two phrases correspond to David's prayer at the beginning, right? He asked a prayer for God to save him and to vindicate him. And now he says that the Lord is the upholder of his life, in reference to save. And the Lord will return evil to my enemies, a vindication, a kind of justice. As they pour out evil, it will return back on them. [00:20:43] David ends in verse five by saying, in your faithfulness, put an end to them. [00:20:49] This reminds us that God, unlike all others, is faithful in his mercy, he's faithful. In his protection, he's faithful. In his justice, he's faithful, which means God is dependable, he's trustworthy. Sometimes we pray and we ask people for things, and we hope that they'll respond. We hope that they will answer. We will hope that they won't use it against us or hurt us. God is faithful. He is who he says he is. You can depend on him. [00:21:23] David has set God before himself. He's seeing things in the light of God. He's praying in his name. And that leads him to verse six. [00:21:33] Prayer connects with worship. [00:21:36] This prayer that he's been offering, this desire of his heart to be saved, moves into worship. In verse six. He says, with a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, o Lord, for it is good. [00:21:56] So what's going on here in verse five, apart from any vow? A sort of like, lord, if you will save me, then I will go offer a sacrifice. [00:22:08] Lord, if you will save me, then I will commit myself to you in this way or that. That's not what he's doing here. He's simply saying, I will freely worship you with a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. [00:22:22] Why? What's David's reason? You can see it in your bibles. Why is David going to offer this offering? Why is David going to give thanks to your name or to the name of the lord? The answer is, for it is good. [00:22:37] It is good. [00:22:40] Now, clearly, David's heart has been moved as he's been praying, and he's expectant and hopeful for what's to come. But what's the reason that he gives? Why worship? Why give thanks? [00:22:54] It is good. [00:22:56] It's a beautiful simplicity to that. When we reflected on the goodness God gives to us in Christ, when we reflect on the freedom and the power that we have, even and especially in times of righteous suffering, we also will worship. Not because we have to, although of course, we do have to worship God. And not because someone is making us or some kind of, as one person I read wrote it, a self imposed servitude out of fear, out of guilt, but because it is good. [00:23:33] This Valerian of Simeon, a fifth century pastor, wrote this. Even though we daily give God whatever honor or gift we can, we never pay him all we owe. [00:23:49] There's a kind of impossibility, right? If we say, okay, well, I'm gonna read my bible or journal in the evening or donate to the church or help my neighbors or any of these things. And we say, I'm going to do that because I'm going to do that because God will somehow be pleased with me and then he will answer my prayer. You've got it very wrong. [00:24:13] You can never give enough to earn God's favor. You can never possibly pay off the debt that you owe to God because of your sins. The same is true for me. Paul tells us rightly that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. [00:24:35] When we think about our sins in all the many ways we've done what the enemies of the Lord described here have done, all the ways in which pride has entered into our hearts, which we fought and quarreled and murdered and coveted, and all these other things, our sins are many and great. [00:24:52] We're not going to pay them off because we said a nice prayer over our food or because we gave some money to church or because we helped out our neighbor. [00:25:03] Those are good and important things to do. God calls us to do them. But we cannot earn our salvation through them. [00:25:12] We cannot earn our salvation through them. [00:25:15] But recognizing our salvation that's given to us freely, we then offer sacrifice and offering and service and thanks to God freely. [00:25:28] The more that we meditate, brothers and sisters, the more that we meditate on the crucifixion of Jesus, the debt that we owed to God, the death that our Lord endured to pay for us, the freedom that we have. As Paul said in romans six, no longer enslaved to sin. Who likes not being a slave anymore? [00:25:50] Me. [00:25:51] No longer enslaved to sin. [00:25:55] Now having freedom, now having resurrection, now having hope in the future, now having victory in our lives, now having growth that is honoring to God and the fruits of the spirit produced in us. The more we think about that salvation, the more that we think about those things, the more we see we have in Christ, the greater our faith becomes, the more we're going to say things like, with a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, because it's good. [00:26:29] It's just so good. [00:26:32] As David reflects on who God is and all that he's done for him, as he says in verse seven, he's delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked on triumph over my enemies, the more his heart is moved to worship. [00:26:49] David is in this amazing moment where he's in this impossible situation. He doesn't know how he's going to get out of it. Yet when he looks on the past, his confidence grows. [00:27:02] Not because he struck down the bear and struck down the lion and struck down Goliath, but because his strength is in the Lord, because he fights in the strength of his mind, because the Lord's will in this situation will ultimately be done. And David also knows, as we ought to know, that the Lord uses suffering and persecution and trials and tribulations and a cross to bring about his good ends, David looks back on the past, and he has confidence. He has delivered me from every trouble. And my eye has looked on the triumph. It looked in triumph on my enemies. [00:27:45] That's why this is good, and this is why I pray, and this is why I worship. [00:27:51] And just as David looks back on his past and recognizes the victories of the Lord and gains confidence in them, I'm here to tell you, so can you. [00:28:03] So can you. [00:28:06] How? [00:28:08] Well, number one, here's a thing that is in the past that we can look on and see how the Lord answered prayer. God answered this prayer. [00:28:18] Right? David didn't stay in this situation forever. In fact, there are these key moments that happen. I won't tell the whole story right now, but these key moments where Saul ends up being embarrassed, David ends up being vindicated. Ultimately, guess who takes the throne? David, through this suffering, through this prayer. Kind of like a prayer in the garden. Of Gethsemane. Through this suffering moment, through this difficulty, eventually, David rises and takes his seat on the throne that God has given to him. [00:28:56] God answers this prayer. And here's something even better. [00:29:00] By answering his prayer, by saving his life and a whole bunch of other events, through the answer to that prayer, the prayer that's prayed here, God brings an even bigger thing, the birth of Jesus. [00:29:17] God then brings this greater salvation to David even more than the one he's asking for. In this moment, through David, Jesus, David's son, through preserving his life in this moment, God brought forth another life who would save not only David, but all people who call on the name of the Lord. [00:29:43] That's a pretty amazing answer to prayer. And that moment is also in our rearview mirror, isn't it? We can not only look at God's answer to David's prayer in this moment, we can look at God's answer to prayer by giving him this son who saves the world and gives to us a new heavens and a new earth and this glorious kingdom and all these sorts of things. But we can look at those things and we can say, the Lord answers prayer. Look how he answered David's prayer. [00:30:16] And then when we think about David's son, David's son, who is greater than David, of course, Jesus, our Lord, we can know that God even answered Jesus prayer right before Jesus went and was betrayed. Before he went into the garden, before he went to the cross, he prayed. He said, Lord, I have done your will. [00:30:36] Glorify me as and glorify on those you have given me. It's John 17. We have this amazing prayer in which Jesus prays and asks that God would bring to fulfillment all that he says he would do. [00:30:56] We could summarize large parts of that prayer by using David's word, save me, vindicate me. [00:31:05] Here's a question for you. [00:31:07] Did God answer the prayer of Jesus? [00:31:12] Absolutely. [00:31:14] Yes, he was betrayed. Yes, he went to the cross. But what happens after that? What happens even in that? In the moment of the cross, in the moment of Jesus death, a perfect sacrifice for sins is offered so that your and my sins might be forgiven now and forever. [00:31:33] Jesus raises from the dead. More than that, he ascends into heaven and takes the throne, sitting gloriously, ruling over all things as the glorious God man, as our king, as our savior, as our God, as our representative, as our intercessor, who still is praying for us and interceding for us, and whose prayers are always and perfectly answered, answering the giving him salvation and glory, not according to his divinity, which is infinitely glorious. Nothing can be added or taken away to that. But in his humanity, in the very way that he came and represented us, that's how he is glorified, that's how he saves us. And so when we look on our past, when we look at the things the Lord has done for us in history before we were ever born, and in our own lives, we can say without any qualification, the Lord has delivered me from every trouble. [00:32:55] If your faith is in Christ, you have been saved from everything, from the world and all its lies and maneuverings and murmurings and plotting. You've been saved from the devil who would seek to enslave you, who would seek to rule over you with power and fear. [00:33:16] You've been saved from death itself, that your own deaths, what might be sanctified in the Lord. And one day your bodies will raise into the newness of life and live eternal in glorification. [00:33:32] Even in this life, the things that we encounter, the things that we do, the very difficult and challenging things, these impossible moments we find ourselves in, God uses them for our growth, for our sanctification, for our purifying, he saves us constantly, in every way, at the highest level, at the most micro level, he has delivered us from every trouble our eyes have looked on the triumph of our enemies. When we look at the cross of Christ, when we look back then as David looked back, we have every reason to trust God, every reason to set him before our eyes, every reason to go boldly to the throne and pray in Jesus name in every time need. [00:34:25] So let me ask you, and finish with this, what do you need in your life right now? [00:34:33] What do you need? [00:34:35] What enemies of Christ are pursuing your soul? [00:34:41] Is it something in the flesh? [00:34:43] Is it some leftover part of that sinful nature that the Lord is putting to death that keeps creeping back and trying to destroy you? [00:34:54] Is it the devil accusing you, lying to you, seeking to harm you in this or that way, prowling around like a roaring lion, deceiving, murdering? [00:35:09] Is it the world with all of its lies and theories and ways in which it creates this environment in which it makes us say, maybe what the devil says is true? [00:35:22] Did God really say maybe I should live my own life and do it in my own way? All these other people are doing it. They'd be fine with me if I did. [00:35:35] What enemies of Christ are pursuing your soul? [00:35:41] Cry out to him. [00:35:43] He will deliver you. [00:35:47] Maybe take time like my friend or like David, and write down your prayers. [00:35:55] Take time to give thought to it, to set God before yourself, to ask him to save you, to look on Jesus and be comforted and reminded of the deliverance you already have and worship him. [00:36:13] Give to him, offering a free will offering and sacrifice. Give to him thanks. Because as you reflect on all of these things, you and I will recognize that it is good. [00:36:27] It is good because he is good and he loves us. [00:36:33] Let's pray. [00:36:36] Our heavenly father, we ask that you would glorify yourself in saving us. [00:36:44] We ask that you would put to shame every human power and wisdom, every aspiration to strength and resilience over you. [00:36:59] And instead, Lord, let us and our families and our neighborhoods see that strength comes not from fleeing you, not from disobeying you, but from faith in you for running into you as our refuge, as our helper, as the upholder of our lives, to trust you as the faithful one, the mighty one, the hearing one, the delivering one, the triumphing one. [00:37:32] Lord, how amazing you are to have given us so many reasons to trust you, especially the work of your son and spirit in our lives, who comforts us, encourages us, and even intercedes for us. [00:37:50] We know that you hear his prayers, for he is a perfect and eternal high priest. He has given himself so that your wrath might be turned away, so that we would no longer be insolent and ruthless, but might know you as our God. [00:38:13] We ask, o Lord, as we reflect on our various needs this morning, some of them small and some of them very large, some of them creating just low levels of anxiety in us, some of them feeling almost crippling. [00:38:29] Lord, in all these things, we ask that you would help us not to be anxious, but to trust you, to lean on you and believe what you have said. [00:38:40] Lord, strengthen the words of our mouths so that we might be people who pray, people who speak to you in faith, knowing that you hear our prayers and answer them. [00:38:55] Let us be those who pray not only for ourselves, but for one another and for those who still need you. We pray, Lord, this morning for our missionaries both at home and abroad. This morning we pray for the work in Yuma, and we ask that you would be with pastor reason and the saints there. Lord, please help them to establish new elders, to finish training, to be able to organize that church in the near future. Lord, we thank you for the witness and the work that has been done there. And we ask that you would grow it, that the people there in this part of our state and on the border between two states and close even to another country, would be a bright light for you and a refuge and a place of hope and salvation for many. [00:39:49] Lord, we also pray for our missionaries overseas. [00:39:55] We ask that you would be with our work in Uganda, a work that has struggled in various ways and has produced good fruit as well. Please continue to supply their needs. Be with those who are at work there. [00:40:11] And, Lord, we ask that you would continue to do that work of discipleship, training and growth. [00:40:18] Lord, we pray also for our brothers and sisters in other denominations. We ask that you would strengthen and perfect them, even as you strengthen and perfect us. Lord, we ask that you would be at work in our families and in our homes. Please watch over us and help us to treat each other well, to not quarrel and to fight, but to live well as you have called us to do. [00:40:47] Lord, we ask that you would bless us here at covenant, that you would continue to knit us together in love, that you would teach us to find comfort in you and to give that comfort to one another. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.