Psalm 3
January 19, 2025 Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we worship you this morning because you are the only one worthy of our worship. It often feels easier to worship you when everything is going great. But rarely is it true that EVERYTHING is going great. Many of us enjoy
physical safety and are not worried about enemies outside our door that seek to rise against us. We pray for our brothers and sisters who feel this threat more
than us. Far fewer of us are immune from the mental thoughts that threaten us.
The enemies in our mind cannot be defended with a physical shield or concrete bunker. We pray Ephesians 6 in putting on the whole armor of God to protect us.
We take up the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit. Praying at all times in the Spirit and in all places, making supplication for the saints, like this author Paul who is in chains. We pray for perseverance and protection.
In Psalm 3 not only does David pray for physical safety and mental health, in verse 7 he asks the Lord to break the teeth of the wicked. Those hungry carnivores that want to eat us up. In the book of Daniel chapter 6 we see God demonstrate his power in clenching the teeth of the lions to protect Daniel, and then allowing those teeth in turn to destroy those who originally presented the threat to Daniel, with their own mouths and teeth. May we repeat your promises and faithfulness and trust you when these threats are made against us from teeth that threaten.
When we lie down to sleep, Lord sustain us. Help us to trust you for our physical protection. We pray for Christians around the world who daily trust you with their physical safety and face threats of varying nature. Protect us from the verbal threats, originating from media, or in our workplaces, or schools, or even threats from family members. May we go to bed praying for your protection, and may you give us the rest we need for another day.
May our trust in you over-flow in our lives so that we bring words and good deeds to the world to see your goodness. May our church bless our community and may we be a place where people love to come together to celebrate you and remind ourselves of your goodness. We thank you that you have filled so many of our church members with leadership and love to lead all of the ministries of our church. We celebrate your good news and building each other up and caring for one another and our neighbors.