A Prayer

Father,

You are simply amazing. That's true in so many ways. Here's just one: You care. You care about us. Why You would bother, we don't know. What are we compared to You? You are the great and fearsome God, and we are puny, weak creatures. And then on top of that, we sin. And it isn't that we sin just a bit. We sin all the time. But You still care. We are important to You, each one of us.

And because You care about us, You care for us. You care for us in all sorts of ways. There isn't even one little corner of our lives that You aren't completely aware of, and ready and eager to take care of, when the need arises. You care for us in the big things and the little things.

We are grateful for this, Father, because the longer we are at this thing called living, the clearer it becomes that doing even a fairly decent job of it is impossible for creatures like us. Oh, we have had our times of success. But how many times have we failed? And then, it dawns on us that we blew it because we were trying to do it on our own. That just doesn't work. That's when we remember that we need to lean on You. And we can, because You care.

There are those times when something is coming up that we get nervous about. What's going to happen? Will I handle this okay? What if I don't? And we get all twisted up. We get anxious. We become afraid. But why? It makes no sense. You are God, the all-powerful God. And You care about us. And so, You will care for us. What can happen that will get around that? What can stop You from caring about us and caring for us? What? Father, forgive us this insanity. It really doesn't make any sense. We are Yours, and You are ours. You care. What can go wrong? Help us to remember that all the time, and especially those times when we're tempted to live as if it weren't true. How silly.

Father, we want to thank You for this blessing of the Gospel. We know that we're going to end up enjoying You forever and a day, and that is going to be so good. But we also know that we begin to enjoy bits of that forever now. You care now. Thank You that what Jesus did includes this.

1 Peter 5.7