A Hopeless Dawn by Frank Bramley, via Wikimedia Commons
Lord, our faith and our hope are so weak.
We do not dare to base our lives entirely on your promise.
We doubt your power.
Lord, forgive the doubters and the hopeless,
and give us your promise anew today.
Lord God, you let the water rise high around us.
Look down on your world.
There is terrible torment of hunger and thirst,
no home, no work, tears and despair;
God, are these the children of your mercy?
Is this the world that you have created?
Oh, we must be terribly far from you
for your creatures to have to suffer so.
We will soon come to the end.
We no longer believe, we no longer hope.
Come now, O God, and break all this wretchedness,
all this misery,
and if it is your gracious will
that we fall still deeper into the water,
then do not hide from us the promise
that you want to create a new heaven and a new earth,
that you have invited the poor and wretched,
the troubled and suffering into your kingdom.
God, make us glad again.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906 – 1945, German Lutheran theologian and martyr
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How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
