Psalm 46 As The Opening Prayer

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So we're going to start tonight with Psalm 46, one of my favorite Psalms, as we begin to pray. God is our refuge and strength, in ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall. God will help her at break of day. Nations are in an uproar, kingdoms fall, he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the shields with fire. He says, Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Almighty God, thank you, thank you for being our fortress. Thank you for being our ever-present help in time of need. Lord, as we come to you as a nation, as a church, as your people, as we come to you, Lord, on this national day of prayer, in this season, in this current environment where, Lord, everything seems to be shaking. Everything seems to be rumbling. The nations are in an uproar, Lord. There's inflation layoffs, there's all kinds of things, Lord, that the world is telling us that we ought to be afraid. Our own flesh is telling us we need to worry. The things around us tell us that we ought to be afraid, that we ought to be fearful, Lord, and distressed. But your word says differently. Your word tells us that we ought not to be afraid, that we need only to look up where our help comes from, and that is from you. Father God, you are our ever-present help in time of need. You are the God who has never lost a battle. You are the God who promises that no matter where we are, you are by our side. You say, be still and know that you are God. Father, that says that we are to still our hearts, that even though everything else around us tells us that we ought to worry, that we ought to tell ourselves, be still. Be still and remember who our God is. Be still. Be still and remember who fights for us. Be still. Be still and remember who our gyra is and who provides. Be still. Be still and remember who calms the storm in our lives. Be still. Be still and remember who is the supplier of all that we will ever need. Be still. Be still and remember who is our great defender. Be still. Be still and know. Be still and know. Who has the earth, the world, and all of the stars and the universe and everything else in his hands. Be still. Be still and know. Who knows your future and who has plans for you, for me. Plans not to harm us. Plans to prosper us. Plans to give us a future. Be still. Be still and know that the same God who parted the waters back then is still the same God today. Be still. Be still and know the one who knows your heart better than anyone else, better than we know our own selves. Be still. Be still and know the one who loves our children even more than we love them. The one who knows what their future holds. Be still. Be still and remember the one who is sovereign, the one who has providence, who can make everything right. Be still, be still and remember that He is God. And if God is for us, then who can be against us? Be still. Be still and know that we can come before the throne of God, before the throne of grace, and lay it all down. Be still. Be still to the one who has already forgiven our sins. Be still to the one who calls us the redeemed. Be still. No matter what the news says, no matter what what the world says, no matter what our own flesh says, be still. Father God, we lay our anxieties before you. We lay our fears before you. We lay our burdens before you. We lay our concerns before you. We lay our iniquities before you. We lay our shortcomings before you. We lay our shame before you. We lay our guilt before you. We lay our dreams before you. Our hopes before you. Our desires before you. Lord, we lay it all before you. We lay our everything before you, our weaknesses. We lay ourselves before you. To the God who knows. To the God who is able. To the God who promises good to us and for us. To the God who is our ever-present help in time of need. We give it all to you, Lord. You are our helper, you are our provider. You are our defender. You are our shelter. You are faithful, Lord. You are faithful and you are merciful and you are gracious. We give it all to you, Lord. We give you our children who we worry about, Lord. We give you the fact that they're going off to school in the mornings and we cannot protect them, Lord. So we ask that you protect them. We ask that you just lay your hand over every child, Lord, in every school, in every situation. We ask, Lord, that chains of addictions be broken. We ask, Lord, that insecurities, Lord, that you would breathe new life into our kids. We ask for those that, Lord, don't know where their next meal is going to come from. We ask for the parents, Lord, that are worried because they're watching their children and they cannot provide right now for their physical needs. We lay it before you. We pray for our nation, Lord. We pray for its people, its citizens. We pray for its leaders, Lord. We need your divine wisdom and discernment, Lord. We need you to breathe afresh on our leaders, Lord. That Father, that they would not be led by their own desires, by their own power, Lord, but that they would see your people and that they would be tender-hearted towards them. Father God, we lift up our church, your church, Lord. We lift up every member of your church body, all of your children, Lord, those who believe, we lift our faith to you. Father God, sometimes we don't do the right things. We don't say the right things. We don't love as we ought to love. We do not have the heart of Christ. But Father, we know that it is your grace, Lord. It is your grace that enables us to do all that you ask of us to do. And which is only simple, two simple things, Lord, to love you and to love each other. Father, we ask for your grace to do that, Lord, to love you, to love you, to honor you, to glorify you. And in turn, Lord, to honor each other and to love one another. Father, may your church be known the way that you want us to be known, Lord, the way that people would know that we are Christ's followers by the way that we love one another. Father, replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. Father, create in us a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within us, Lord. Father, we present everything to you. We give you all the glory, Father. We give you all the praise. And it is in Jesus' holy and mighty name we pray. Amen.