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The Timeless Psalmsby Joan Stott |
A Call to Worship
Psalm 119: 9-16, Lent 5B 2012
All-knowing God, we gather to celebrate your wisdom and words.May we always keep your words and wisdom close to our hearts.
Holy God, we gather to praise you for your grace and your mercy.
May we make God’s grace and mercy a part of our everyday life.
Unknown and Known God, we gather together to worship and thank you.
May we learn from our worship what are the important values in life. Amen.
If used in shared worship, please provide an acknowledgement as follows:
© 2012 Joan Stott – "The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year B, used with permission.
Prayers of Petition and Praise
Psalm 119: 9-16, Lent 5B 2012
Wise and wonderful God, we gather seeking your blessing, graceand mercy this day. We come too, with troubled hearts to learn
from your wisdom about ways in which we can help our young
people so that they are blessed as they start on their path to adulthood.
Our earnest prayers are that they may learn to grow in wisdom
and in the hope that comes from a close relationship with you,
our Tender God. There are so many temptations waiting to entice
them from commitment to your way of life; your way of living and
loving; and we come seeking your grace and mercy upon them all.
We remember with pain and regret our own struggles as young
people let loose in a ‘foreign’ world! We give you thanks and praise
for the wise counsel we received from your faithful servants who did
not talk ‘down’ to us and who treated us with dignity and respect.
Grant us, we pray, the wisdom to be a mentor, guide and help to
our young people; that they too may take your ‘rules for life and
living’ into their hearts, into their lives, and into their relationships.
Understanding God, as for our own lives and our own struggles to
live a pure and consecrated life; we often fail miserably to be ‘pure’
in thought, word and deed! It is only through God’s grace and mercy
that we are encouraged to continue on this path of commitment.
We take pleasure and delight in our worship of God, and praise our
God for the wisdom that you have given to us to understand how
important worship is in our daily living and loving. Please help us to
continue to desire to learn more about our God, and of God’s ways.
God, our Beginning and our End, hear these our prayers this day,
and especially our prayers for all vulnerable youth and young adults. Amen.
If used in shared worship, please provide an acknowledgement as follows:
© 2012 Joan Stott – "The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year B, used with permission.
A Personal Meditation
Psalm 119: 9-16, Lent 5B 2012
Thank you Generous God, for the privilege of growing up ina Christian home, in a supportive church community amongst
people who were not only interested in me, but encouraged
me to explore the gifts God had given me. I give thanks for
dedicated teachers in our church school; for youth leaders who
helped me and did not always try to protect ‘their own patch’.
I give thanks for such wonderful mentors who rejoiced in their
faith in God, and wanted to regularly share it with young people.
| Creative pause: | I give thanks for dedicated helpers in my youth. |
I give thanks that when sometimes, I wandered from the path
of discipleship, they were brave enough to step in and redirect me.
They taught me so much about life and faith, by living it each day,
and made the church community a safe ‘home’ for all the young
people; and passed on to us all their joy from being in fellowship
with God, and with God’s people. They encouraged me to learn to
pray; to preach; and to lead; what a blessing they were to all our
young people. Help me O God, to be a similar style of mentor to
the next generation of young people, so that the experiences I had
will help them in their differing circumstances. Help me to share
with them my joy in the Lord; to share my desire to learn more
about God and God’s ways; and so develop a love of God’s Holy
Word, and seek to follow in the wise counsel of our Glorious God.
| Creative pause: | May I be an acceptable mentor to young people. |
Life-enriching God, help me always to pray for children, young
people, and young adults, that they too may be blessed with the
joy-filled discoveries found in God’s Holy Word; that they may
yearn for a deeper knowledge and understanding of God’s world
and God’s ways; and that they will accept the wisdom of living a
life of service for others in God’s kingdom of justice, purity and love.
| Creative pause: | Help me always to pray for young people. |