November 16, 2024 - Psalms‬ ‭43‬:‭5

“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!” Psalms 43:5 NLT

Lord, help us to keep our eyes on you. We know that you are always with us and will never forsake your children. No matter what is happening around us or what we are facing, you can stand on the fact that you have not forgotten us. That doesn’t mean things will always go the way we want. It doesn’t mean that we will never have to fight or even that we will win all our battles. It does mean that no matter what life is throwing at us, you are with us. You are for us. Your love for us is unending. Grow our trust in you. Help us learn to cling to you in every circumstance. Help us to value our relationship with you more than the things we want.

We don’t want the way we see or treat you to change when things don’t happen like we wish they would have. When everything around us presses in on us and we have every reason to be discouraged, let our hope still be in you. Even when we don’t feel it, let us keep declaring your truth and praise until we begin to believe it. Let us stand strong in our faith and take courage in your truth. In the seasons of life that are full of pain and sadness, even then, let us still be grounded in your joy and not allow the sadness to pull us under its consuming hold. Help us to feel your arms around us weeping with us and stand in your hope, knowing that we are not forgotten, and we are not alone. Help our relationship with you be grounded deeply, so it does not easily get uprooted when the storms of life do all they can to uproot us. Help us to know without a doubt that our hope is in you, our Savior and God.

In Jesus name, amen.