Scripture: Job 42:1-9

[This summer the minister invited people to request sermons based on scripture, a theme, or question they have. This one came from Joe who said he always had a hard time interpreting Job. Not sure this answered all his questions. BUT it did spin off another sermon for next week about the history and origins of Satan.]

Sermon: “The Story of Job, In Brief”

For download: 180610_0858 

Prayer

You are the God of Love and we praise you. You are the light in the dark, hope in tragedy, calm in terror, and a promise in death. To you we turn when life seems to crumble and all is is shifting sand under beneath us. To you we lift our hymns, our prayers, and our worship. You are our God.

Be God. Sometimes we have a long list of things to be done by you: healing, forgiveness, fixes, and preventions.  Hear in our lists part of a conversation about our values and priorities. Dear in our prayers that we trust you, that we look to you to make right what we can not influence. We trust you like our God, our prayers are for some sense that that you are there: alive, active, and love us. Our deepest prayer is that you love us and do not abandon us. Even in our imperfect understanding of what it means, we want you to be our God.

We pray to avoid the darkness and the tragedy, we want healing, forgiveness, and for things to be fixed. And yet Lord, we also hunger for you to be God in our daily lives, the ordinary bits of our existence.Be God in the beige times of life. Mold us then, strength our trust and increase our spiritual sense so we do not need you to confirm your love when  the dankness of tragedy enters our lives. Yea Lord, maybe would not even see such times as tragedy if we already see you( your love and presence) already in the folds of time and circumstance. How often do we pray for our lists to be done? Truly Lord, all we really want is for you to be God, our God, and to know we are your beloved.

Lord, hear our prayers. Especially when our words do not convey them.

Amen