Scripture and Prayer on Thursday, February 11, 2021

Pastor David reads 2 Timothy 3 and offers a prayer from Howard Thurman:

We find it very difficult, our Father, to bring to a point of focus all of the fragmentation and divisiveness of our lives. We ask Thee to draw upon Thy long experience with Thy children, and out of this special wisdom and understanding, to interpret the words which we say to Thee in our prayer. We are overwhelmed by our great inability somehow to manage the imperfections of life, the imperfections of our own private lives, the clear insight which suddenly becomes dim and often disappears at the moment when we are sure that we could act upon it; the good deed which we express and which, as it leaves us, wings on it way to fulfill itself in another’s life, in another’s need; and as we watch, we are horrified at the way in which something goes wrong and the good deed is not a good deed in the way in which it works, and we are thrown back upon ourselves. We don’t know how to manage the imperfections fo our lives, the imperfections of so many expressions of our lives.

We have brooded over nature. We have understood here and there some of its inner mandates, and we have been able to translate those these mandates into expressions of machinery and objects, and we have learned how to operate these machines and to make these objects, created out of our insights, expressions of our intent. We have made these things into servants to obey our minds and our wills and then, suddenly, we are faced with radical and quick and devastating breakdown! Something goes wrong, we do not know what, and there is mindless violence and destruction. We don’t know how to manage the imperfections of our lives.

Now we wait for the fateful moment when once again we ourselves as a nation will begin learning, with more finesse and accuracy, to kill, to destroy. And we feel, some of us, that the only way to survive is to do this, and some of us are sure that this is but to hasten the end of the age.

How to manage the imperfections of our minds and our spirits, our thoughts, even our intent? O God, we don’t know how. We don’t know how. We don’t know how. Take all the outcry of our anguish, all the sin and brokenness of our faltering selves and hold them with such sureness that we learn from Thee.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Thursday, February 11, 2021

Scripture and Prayer on Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Pastor David reads 2 Timothy 2:14-26 and offers a prayer from Eloise Alberta Veronica Bibb:

Lord, all I am and hope to be,
I humbly offers, King, to thee!
When clouds arise, thy guidance send,
Accept my life, and bless it, Friend.

O Father! let me rest in thee,
Resigned to what *thou* will’st for me;
Content, though all my fond hopes fade,
And visions bright in gloom are laid.

When I was but a tiny child,
Thou shielded me from tempests wild;
And gave me strength to do the right
Within temptation’s treacherous sight.

And now in girlhood’s solemn time,
Oh, make my life one perfect rhyme,
Sung to the air of sweet content,
With blended sounds of a life well spent.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Scripture and Prayer on Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Pastor David reads 2 Timothy 1:15-2:13 and offers a prayer from W.E.B. Du Bois:

In the midst of life and deeds it is easy to have endurance and strength and determination, but Thy Word, O Lord, teaches us, that this is not enough to bring good to the world – to bring happiness and the worthier success. For *this* we must endure to the end – learn to finish things – to bring them to accomplishment and full fruition. We must not be content with plans, ambitions, and resolves; with part of a message or part of an education, but be set and determined to fulfill the promise and complete the task and secure the full training. Such men and women alone does God save by lifting them above and raising them to higher worlds and wider prospects. Give us then, O God, to resist today the temptation of shirking, and the grit to endure to the end. Amen.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Scripture and Prayer on Monday, February 8, 2021

Pastor David reads 2 Timothy 1:1-14 and offers a prayer from James Weldon Johnson:

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way.

Thou who hast by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray;

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand
True to our God, true to our native land!

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Monday, February 8, 2021

Scripture and Prayer on Friday, February 5, 2021

Pastor David reads Mark 9:2-13 and offers a prayer from W.E.B. Du Bois:

Give us grace, O God, to dare to do the deed which we well know cries to be done. Let us not hesitate because of ease, or the words of men’s mouths, or our own lives. Mighty causes are calling us—the freeing of women, the training of children, the putting down of hate and murder and poverty—all these and more. But they call with voices that mean work and sacrifices and death. Mercifully grant us, O God, the spirit of Esther, that we say: I will go unto the King and if I perish, I perish.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Friday, February 5, 2021

Scripture and Prayer on Thursday, February 4, 2021

Pastor David reads Mark 8:27-9:1 and offers a prayer from Howard Thurman:

Open unto me, light for my darkness
Open unto me, courage for my fear
Open unto me, hope for my despair
Open unto me, peace for my turmoil
Open unto me, joy for my sorrow
Open unto me, strength for my weakness
Open unto me, wisdom for my confusion
Open unto me, forgiveness for my sins
Open unto me, tenderness for my toughness
Open unto me, love for my hates
Open unto me, Thy Self for myself
Lord, Lord, open unto me!

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Thursday, February 4, 2021

Scripture and Prayer on Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Pastor David reads Mark 8:11-26 and offers a prayer from Mary McLeod Bethune, entitled “Symphony of Life”:

Father, we call Thee Father because we love Thee. We are glad to be called Thy children, and to dedicate our lives to the service that extends through willing hearts and hands to the betterment of all mankind. We send a cry of Thanksgiving for people of all races, creeds, classes, and colors the world over, and pray that through the instrumentality of our lives the spirit of peace, joy, fellowship, and brotherhood shall circle the world. We know that this world is filled with discordant notes, but help us, Father, to so unite our efforts that we may all join in one harmonious symphony for peace and brotherhood, justice, and equality of opportunity for all men. The tasks performed today with forgiveness for all our errors, we dedicate, dear Lord, to Thee. Grant us strength and courage and faith and humility sufficient for the tasks assigned to us.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Scripture and Prayer on Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Pastor David reads Mark 8:1-10 and offers a prayer from Paul Laurence Dunbar:

O LORD, the hard-won miles
Have worn my stumbling feet:
Oh, soothe me with thy smiles,
And make my life complete.
The thorns were thick and keen
Where’er I trembling trod;
The way was long between
My wounded feet and God.
Where healing waters flow
Do thou my footsteps lead.
My heart is aching so;
Thy gracious balm I need.

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Scripture and Prayer on Thursday, January 28, 2021

Pastor David reads Isaiah 49:13-23 and offers a prayer from Paul C. Stratman:

Lord of the nations,
God in whom we trust,
you alone are holy,
good, wise,
and the source of every blessing.

In trouble and turmoil,
be our peace.
In our hearts and minds
give us the peace that surpasses understanding.
In our mouths
put words of peace,
and make us peacemakers
that we may be called your children.

Let the truth of your Word
govern and guide us
when we are inclined
to be like Pontius Pilate
and say, “What is truth?”

When we are unsure of all things,
draw us to you,
our faithful God,
steadfast in love,
our rock, refuge and fortress.

(source: https://acollectionofprayers.com/)

Posted by Mt. Haley Church of God on Thursday, January 28, 2021