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New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all your creation, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A Liturgy for Morning Prayer," Upper Room Worshipbook

Used by permission from the Book of Common Worship, © 2018 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. This prayer appears in “A Liturgy for Morning Prayer” in Upper Room Worshipbook.

 

Today’s Reflection

Over the course of our lives, there’s a bridge we must travel to enjoy our deepest, most fulfilling journey of faith in God. This bridge is a pathway of introspection, slow thinking, and prayer before God’s presence.

After a lifetime of communion with God, a life spent petitioning the Lord for deliverance from “the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel” (v. 4), the psalmist leaves a legacy of faith. His message to us is to trust God throughout the successive phases of life’s journey and the places it takes us.

—Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes and Andrew Wilkes, Psalms for Black Lives: Reflections for the Work of Liberation (Upper Room Books, 2022)

Today’s Question

How has God sustained you throughout your life? Join the conversation.

Today’s Scripture

O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might
to all the generations to come.
—Psalm 71:17-18 (NRSV)

Prayer for the Week

Gracious God of Liberation, free us
from our enemies. And when we are the enemies, transform
us from oppressing others into removing the yoke from their
necks and practicing freedom. In Christ’s name, Amen.
—Prayer from Psalms for Black Lives by Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes and Andrew Wilkes.

Submit your prayer to The Upper Room.

Something More

This week’s featured book, Psalms for Black Lives, is now available in audiobook. Listen, pray, and develop a justice imagination wherever you are. Learn more here.

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Looking for lectionary-based resources? Learn more about The Upper Room Disciplines.

6 Comments

  • robert moeller Posted February 11, 2023 7:12 am

    Describing the truth of God’s life long support is a difficult task for me. Spiritual matters are hard to put into words. For the longest time I knew of God, then through unexpected events that came my way, I drew closer. Twice God’s presence was made known, Trust, faith, belief in God keeps me going.Only God truly knows me. I am God’s creation. Thank You, Lord.
    A soup and song event tonight at CCUMC to raise money to fight drug addiction.
    Blessings to all the NEM family.

  • Gail Posted February 11, 2023 8:07 am

    I do not know how God has sustained me, I know only that He has. I can look back and see times when I was miserable, and yet lived through the misery to tell about it. This is not possible without Almighty God looking over me and sustaining me. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” “I love the Lord, because he hears my prayers. . .I was facing death and then he saved me.”

  • Julie Posted February 11, 2023 9:35 am

    Yes, Gail, that is my sense as well. I have lived through times I know would have broken me if I were alone. I am currently living in one now and I thank God each evening for getting me through the day.
    I am speechless when it comes to the swiftness of h’s decline. Each day he is less and less capable of more and more things. I am now his brain aand must prompt him and walk him throught the most mundane tasks. I am going to prepare a detailed list for tomorrow that I pray he is able to follow.

  • Ally Posted February 11, 2023 12:05 pm

    Looking back, I see how God’s provisions have sustained me and my my family through many trials: the deaths of my parents, illness, job loss, etc. especially sustaining we’re God’s provision of support from friends and family through the pandemic and David’s illnesses. God has used my spiritual practices to sustain as well. I must admit to feeling quite overwhelmed right now. David has progressed physically, but his spirits are low and he is depressed. He sees his Dr Tuesday and is going to ask for a referral to the mental health center. I’ve been encouraging him to do this for a couple of years and he has resisted. I believe depression has been the catalyst for sadness, irritability, and apathy. Anyone who has been through what he has in the last years would probably deal with these things.
    Our fridge went out yesterday and the maintenance man came and found something caught in the fan blade. He said to leave it unplugged for a few hours so the compressor could cool off. Still isn’t cooling today. I called emergency maintenance but have not heard back. Thanks be to God for our wonderful neighbor, who has a large fridge and upright freezer and let us store our perishables. God’s got us. Have to remember that.

  • Rick Posted February 11, 2023 12:28 pm

    As a child I had a sense God was with me. As a teenagers when I came out of my pastor and the church asked me to leave, I still knew God was with me. Through out my life there have been hills and valleys. Dealing with the affects of PTSD, post war and medicating with alcohol becoming and alcoholic, he was still with me. I might not always be keenly aware of it at the time. God led me back to a reconciling church with in my denomination, and has sustained me and Blessed me with a life beyond my imagination. I have been sober 9 years and I love serving God in the church and outside the church. Prayers and Blessings to all here Robert, Julie jill, and Gail and all who come 🙏🏻

  • Jill Posted February 11, 2023 5:41 pm

    He has sustained me in more ways I can recount, in gracious ways beyond my comprehension, in sustaining love and mercy. Maybe in Heaven I will be granted a clearer vision of all the things He has spared me from. Great is His faithfulness. To me, a woeful sinner.
    Father, God – thank You for Your daily presence, provision, protection and people You place near us – either literally, or through the blessing of technology, who can encourage us and be Christ to us until we see Him face to face.
    Beautiful sunshine here, with the promise of several more days of it. Took a late afternoon walk, and most of the warmth of the sun was gone, but still good to be out in it. Had a nice lunch out with a friend, and took a brief walk with her dogs. Fell asleep in the sun by her big window in her recliner. Naps are wondrous things. And the time to take them, a blessing also.
    The week ahead is hectic – something each night after school and then a very early morning flight to see dad on Friday. Fortunate that my neighbor is able to stop by my house tomorrow after church to cut my hair. I thought I could wait until I returned home from dad’s, but this is good I am getting it cut tomorrow. Then I will settle in and do schoolwork and things around the house, in preparation for the week.
    May all who stop by here, linger a bit, offer prayers for each other, and have a blessed Lord’s day tomorrow.

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