mercy

Come Holy Spirit

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Pentecost Light by Lawrence OP via flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
 
Come, oh come, most gracious comforter of afflicted souls
    and helper in tribulations.
Come, cleanser of sins and healer of wounds.
Come, strengthener of the weak,
    comforter of the downtrodden.
Come, teacher of the humble
    and destroyer of the proud.
Come, devoted father of the orphan,
    gentle protector of widows.
Come, hope of the poor, reviver of the sick.
Come, stay of the navigator,
    post of refuge for the shipwrecked.
Come, singular glory of those who live,
    singular salvation of those who die.
 
Come, most Holy Spirit, come,
    and have mercy on me.
Make me fit for you.
And graciously reach down to me 
    so that my insignificance 
    may be pleasing to your greatness,
    my weakness to your strength,
    according to the multitude of your mercies
through Jesus Christ my Savior
who lives with the Father in unity 
and reigns forever and ever. 
Amen.
 
Anselm of Canterbury, c. 1033-1109, Benedictine monk and archbishop
 
________________________
 
 
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, 
    how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

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things I know that I should not wish for

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Do Not Covet (THE COMMANDMENTS)
image by loswl via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
 
Father, I know that I should not wish for my neighbor’s (nicer) house, 
    or my neighbor’s (more beautiful/ handsome) spouse.  
I must not think to myself that I should have anything belonging to someone else –
    not ever the smallest thing. Not even their dog.
 
In the other nine commandments you have forbidden 
    all injuries and evil practices against my neighbors.  
Now you charge me to beware of thinking any evil thoughts against them.
 
And for this reason I have great reason to praise you.  
You care about my home and everything I own, even my dog, 
    and you command everyone else never to wish they had all my things, 
    instead of me.
 
The apostle said we should be 
    “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 
It is true, and I find it true. 
In this way you care for us, and so you would have us care for one another.
 
But gracious Lord, I must confess that I have forgotten 
    and have broken this commandment, and I still do every day.  
I am wishing and coveting every minute of every hour.  
I could have been content, 
    but I have always thought my neighbor had too much, and I too little.  
And the dregs of these things, Lord, are not quite out of my heart.  
I deserve your severe justice.
 
But keep in mind the frailty of my flesh, 
    the corruptions of my nature, and the many temptations.  
Remember how I am able to do nothing of myself – 
    and how I would come to nothing if left to myself.  
Be merciful and pardon me in this way also, for the sake of your son. 
Amen.
 
John Bradford, 1510-1555, English reformer and martyr
 
___________________________
 
 
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; 
you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, 
or his male servant, or his female servant, 
or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

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Give us the grace to admit . . .

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
Lord Jesus, we are silly sheep who have dared to stand before you
    and try to bribe you with our preposterous portfolios.
Suddenly we have come to our senses.
We are sorry and ask you to forgive us.
Give us the grace to admit we are ragamuffins,
   to embrace our brokenness,
   to celebrate your mercy 
        when we are at our weakest,
    to rely on your mercy no matter what we may do.
Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention,
    to do the truth quietly without display,
    to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away,
    to accept our limitations,
    to cling to the gospel of grace,
    and to delight in your love.
 
Brennan Manning, 1934-2013, American author, laicized priest, and speaker
 
____________________________
 
 
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. 
There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
 

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I fly to you for refuge

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
photo by jonathan emili via pexels.com
 
 
I fly to you for refuge, blessed Christ, my only redeemer and savior.
My sins are certainly great.
But greater still is the payment you have made for them.
 
Great is my unrighteousness, but greater by far is your righteousness.
I admit my sin.
Please, in your grace, would you pay its penalty?
I reveal the sin, in your mercy conceal it.
With remorse I uncover it; please hide it, in your grace.
 
There is nothing in me but sin that deserves your condemnation.
But in you there is nothing but grace that gives me a blessed hope of salvation.
 
I hear a voice in scripture which tells me to hide in the clefts of the rock.
You are the rock that cannot be moved, and your wounds are those clefts.
In them I will hide from the accusations of the world.
 
My sins cry aloud to heaven for vengeance,
    but still more loudly cries out your blood shed for my sins.
 
My sins accuse me before God, 
    but your suffering is mightier for my defense.
My horribly wicked life calls for my condemnation,
    but your holy and righteous life pleads more powerfully still for my salvation.
I appeal from the throne of your justice to the throne of your mercy.
I have no desire to come before your judgment –
    unless your holy merit intervenes between me and your sentence.
 
Have mercy on us, only God of mercy,
    and turn our stony hearts to you! Amen!
 
Johann Gerhard, 1582 – 1637, Lutheran church leader and theologian
 
___________________________
 
 
Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My victory and honor come from God alone.
    He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
O my people, trust in him at all times.
    Pour out your heart to him,
    for God is our refuge. 

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Your kingdom come, here and in heaven

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
Thy kingdom come, Lord!
Raise, Lord; enlarge, Lord; establish your kingdom!
Yours is the glory.
And unless you want your glory confined only to heaven,
   or account the praises and eternal hallelujahs of saints and angels
       enough adoration for your great name, Lord,
   have regard to this poor decaying kingdom.
For only in it, and in heaven is your glory celebrated.
 
And if you leave this kingdom to be overrun 
    by the agents and ministers of the devil,
  or if idolatry and the profane gain ground here 
    so as to push you off your throne,
        would that not be giving your glory to another –
        which you have promised not to do?
 
Lord, you are still the same God.
Your essence is eternal.
Your attributes will never change.
Your power, wisdom, and mercy are the same as ever.
So in your mercy, grant us the same favor.
Amen.
 
Ezekiel Hopkins, 1634–1690, Anglican minister
_______________________
 
 
The thought of my suffering and homelessness
    is bitter beyond words
I will never forget this awful time,
    as I grieve over my loss.
Yet I still dare to hope
    when I remember this:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
    His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
    his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
    therefore, I will hope in him!”

 

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you have forgiven me such great sins

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
What return shall I make to the Lord 
    for my ability to recall these things with no fear in my soul? 
I will love you, Lord, and thank you, and praise your name, 
    because you have forgiven me such great sins and such wicked deeds. 
I acknowledge that it was by your grace and mercy 
    that you melted away my sins like ice. 
I acknowledge, too, that by your grace 
    I was preserved from whatever sins I did not commit,
    for there was no knowing what I might have done, 
    since I loved evil even if it served no purpose. 
I avow that you have forgiven me all,
    both the sins which I committed of my own accord 
    and those which by your guidance I was spared from committing.

What man who reflects upon his own weakness 
    can dare to claim that his own efforts have made him chaste and free from sin, 
    as though this entitled him to love you the less, 
    on the ground that he had less need of the mercy 
    by which you forgive the sins of the penitent? 
There are some who have been called by you 
    and because they have listened to your voice 
    they have avoided the sins which I here record and confess for them to read. 
But let them not deride me for having been cured by the same Doctor 
    who preserved them from sickness, 
    or at least from such grave sickness as mine. 
Let them love you just as much, or even more, than I do, 
    for they can see that the same healing hand 
        which rid me of the great fever of my sins 
        protects them from falling sick of the same disease. 
 
St. Augustine of Hippo, 354-430
 
_____________________________
 
 
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
    he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
    I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me,
    the anguish of the grave came over me;
    I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
    “Lord, save me!”

The Lord is gracious and righteous;
    our God is full of compassion.
The Lord protects the unwary;
    when I was brought low, he saved me.

Return to your rest, my soul,
    for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
    my eyes from tears,
    my feet from stumbling,
 that I may walk before the Lord
    in the land of the living.
 

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make us relevant to those in need

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Supper at Emmaus, by Peter Paul Rubens via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
God of life
God of justice
God of love and mercy
 
God the provider
God our refuge and sustainer
God our comforter
 
Hear the plight of those living in squalid conditions
We present the vulnerabilities of the widows,
orphans, sick, the aged, and unemployed
We present their needs before you
We appeal to you to meet them at their point of need
 
Give them hope and faith in you
Give them courage to soldier on
Give them resilience and tenacity
 
We pray that while the powers that 
have tended to ignore their plight
you will be the eyes and ears that see and listen
to their heartfelt needs
 
We pray that you make us the instrument
and the channel of healing and source of comfort;
We appear to you to make us relevant and effective
to those in need.
Amen.
 
complied by Claudio Carvalhaes, professor of worship in New York City
 
________________________
 
 
God has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly
    and show partiality to the wicked? 
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
    maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
 

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Separate us from forgiven sins

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image, Steve  F, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Father, when You forgive sins, 
You separate them as far from us as the east is from the west
 
Bury them in the bottom of the deepest sea
and put up a sign for the devil that says,
NO FISHING.
 
Corrie Ten Boom, 1892-1983, Dutch Holocaust Survivor and author
 
______________________
 
 
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
 

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a prayer for freedom

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Zulmaury Saavedra via unsplash
 
Dear God,
 
I used to think that freedom meant I could do anything 
    or have anything I wanted.
That just made me a slave to my own desires.
Soon I found myself trapped 
    in destructive habits, hurtful relationships and even powerful addictions.
That is not freedom. That’s bondage.
 
When I learned about Jesus, I saw the truth:
I am a needy person who needs a merciful God.
Only you provide what I’m looking for.
Only you can provide that path to freedom.
Thank you for teaching me that freedom is found 
    in living a life consistent with truth,
    in a way that keeps my heart, mind, body, and soul all free.
True freedom comes when the reality of your holiness
    overpowers my sinful inclinations
    and fills my life with the fullness of your liberating love.
 
Ronald Beers, Chief Publishing Officer for Tyndale
_______________________
 
 
But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, 
  so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

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our feeble reality

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Ray ZHUANG via Unsplash
 
Lord God, the strongest and brightest of us 
    are as fragile as a floating bubble,
    unsteady as a newborn kitten on a waxed kitchen floor.
If we keep our footing in the shaky space 
    between our arrival and departure from this world
  we owe our survival – not to mention our success – to many other people
    who held us up and helped us crawl or fly or muck our way through
    and to You, God, who keeps breathing life into our lungs
        the way a child keeps puffing air into a leaking balloon.
    We take our every step in the energy of mercy . . . 
    We see each flower, taste each drop of water,
        sense the presence of each person around us,
            through your gift of consciousness.
For all this may we be grateful.
 
Lewis Smedes, 1921 – 2002, American ethicist and author in the Reformed tradition
Prayers for Today, slightly modified
_________________________
 
 
Yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming in power.
    He will rule with a powerful arm.
    See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
    He will carry the lambs in his arms,
holding them close to his heart.
    He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.

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