Resurrection Care

At the end of my second trip to Africa, I had a great musical surprise.  It came at the end of our final worship together with the hundreds of women who had come from all over Africa to the education and worship conference provided by SHADE.  These women had confronted incredible pain in their life. From poverty, starvation, thirst for clean water, rape and disease that had killed many of their friends and family.  As I wrapped up the service, right before the final prayer I invited them to hear a song of hope that God would help us…an African-American spiritual which became popular in the civil rights movement.  And to my surprise, as I began to sing their voices chimed in more loudly and robustly than I could have ever anticipated.  As we go to God in prayer, let us know that God will help us overcome the adversity of our lives.  And truly God will see us through.  I would invite you to go with me to God in prayer now and at the end we will sing together We Shall Overcome.

Let’s pray:

Gracious Lord, what a gift it is to know that we can come to you together to worship you in this your holy house which offers safety and grace for all your children.  Lord help us turn our focus to you that we can truly see the beauty of this fall day for it is amazing.  Help us to relax and rejoice on this Sabbath day.  God, our hearts are full to overflowing as we see your love and grace working through our Matthew’s Ministry, Silver Link Ministry, FaithWork and the SHADE ministries in Africa.  Lord God, for all the lay people, pastors and teachers who reach out to care for a hurting world, we thank you.

Yet, Lord God, we confess to you that we can so easily fail you.  We know we can be short sighted and selfish both corporately and individually.  We can turn away from those who need us both in our families and throughout the world.  For all of the ways that we fall short of your desired goal for us, we ask your forgiveness in this moment of silent prayer.

Lord, as we think of the chaos this past week in America, from Galveston and Houston to Wall Street, we know that it is quite possible that for many there may be difficult times ahead.  God of all, whether we be in Africa with our friends who need water or in America facing our own challenges, we pray that you would give us the strength and the wisdom to know how to cope as people of God.  Help us to remember, Lord, that you will see us through anything…anything.  And that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus  We pray all this together as we set our eyes on you that your kingdom will come.  In Jesus’ name, we pray.  Amen.

We Shall Overcome (African-American Spiritual)

We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome someday!
Oh, deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome someday!

The Lord will see us through, The Lord will see us through, The Lord will see us through someday!
Oh, deep in my heart I do believe The Lord will see us through someday!