God.

We started our time together today telling each other “how good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!”

It may be good. But it is often hard.

We struggle with praises when we are unsure where the money is coming from for this bill. We struggle with praises when we are scared about the outcome of the tests. We struggle with praises when we are brokenhearted and wounded.

But we are not always struggling.

The invitation is to remember in our times of rest and relief that you are the source of both. The invitation is to remember in our times of meaningful work that you are the source of both work and meaning. And the invitation is to remember in our moments of being adrift that you are with us always, even there.

Give strength, I ask, in our weariness.

Give us power in our weakness.

Renew us, I ask, even in this moment.

Through Christ our Lord,

Amen.

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Reflecting on Psalm 147:1-11 and Isaiah 40:21-31