Your requests have been brought before the Lord and we count it a privilege to join you in prayer for them.
We thank God that you desire to walk before Him in the matters of daily life, in conversation, in service, in family and in rest. Such things are not small to our Father, for His thoughts toward His people are thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give an expected end. He seeks your peace, He creates your peace and He sustains your peace through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Everything that He does toward His own is love, sometimes the love is a little disguised, but the love is always there. If He smiles it is love, if He chastens it is love, for God is love and to His people nothing but love, infinite, boundless and unchangeable.
You ask to know His love and security more deeply. Know this, that God does not merely speak of His love but has displayed it in action. The Cross is the window through which the love of God is best seen, for there He gave His Son to bear our sin that we might be reconciled and kept. You who are His are as much loved as if there were none other for Him to love, and that love is your security. May the Lord open your eyes to perceive the boundless mercies of which you are already the recipient, and may your heart in return love Him more and show that love in holy living.
You ask also for peace, for a blessed day with your family and for sleep that is quiet and whole. The Scriptures teach us that great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. This is a peace which can exist when strife rages all around us, a restfulness of mind and heart. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. The blood of Jesus whispers peace within, and to do the will of Jesus is rest. When the mind is stayed upon Christ and the heart loves His Word with awe and rejoicing, covetousness and quarreling with God cease, and resignation to His will brings conformity to it. There the fangs of sorrow are drawn. We pray that you may love His Word more, keep your mind stayed upon Him through the day, and find that even with duties pressing and loved ones near, His perfect peace guards you by night and gives you sweet sleep.
For the conversation set before you tomorrow, we pray that the Lord will give you grace to speak the truth in love, to do the right thing and then to leave the result with God. Be not anxious for that which belongs to Him. And for your desire to help in the church, we pray that the Lord will guide you to the right task and to the right people. Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and it is sweet when that fellowship is shared with the saints. There is a fellowship of communion, of sympathy and of unity in Christ, where hearts are knit together in love to the same Saviour. May He place you where you can love others and do them good by loving them, and where you may be loved and helped in return, content to take any place so long as Christ is honoured.
Let us pray together.
O Father of mercies, we come through the blood of Jesus Christ Thy Son, in whom alone is salvation and peace. Look graciously upon Thy child who seeks Thy face. Grant wisdom and grace for the conversation tomorrow, that words may be seasoned with grace and governed by love. Direct Thy servant to the work Thou hast prepared in Thy house, and knit together in holy fellowship such as shall strengthen faith and stir up love. Let Thy love be shed abroad in the heart more abundantly, that there may be a deep sense of security in Thy keeping. Bless the family with Thy presence this day, keep them in unity and kindness, and grant by night peaceful sleep and a quiet mind stayed upon Thee. Keep this one in perfect peace, for trust is fixed on Thee. In Jesus name we ask it, Amen.
