A Prayer of Praise: Fill Us, O Lord
Your voice is ringing, calling, urging all who hear to come, all who are thirsty to drink, all who are empty to be filled, all who are hungry to eat. You are the living water. You are the bread of life. You heal the sick. You guide the lost. You comfort the broken-hearted. “A bruised reed you will not break, and a faintly burning wick you will not quench” (Isa 42:3). For the lonely, you are a faithful partner. For the fearful, you’re a refuge and strength. You are a “mighty warrior, who will save” (Zeph 3:17).
You will satisfy. You will sustain, all because Christ came, bearing the pain of God’s wrath, removing the chains of our guilt, cleaning the stains of our sin, giving life and joy where there was only death and toil. This day we thank you for healing. We thank you for help. We thank you for hope. We praise you that this life at this time in this world is not all we have. For we have you––our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). We have an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven” for us (1 Pet 1:4). We have been “born again to a living hope” (1:3), and now Jerusalem that is above is our mother (Gal 4:26). We have new birth certificates, and as you record the registers in the heavenly Zion you declare, “This one and that one were born in her. . . . This one was born there” (Ps 87:4, 6).
This day we gather to celebrate you as the faithful Father who does not give us a stone when we ask for bread or a serpent when we ask for fish. No, you give us daily what we need most, for you are “Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exod 34:6–7). You “by no means clear the guilty” (34:7), but you are “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9) because Jesus Christ the righteous is now our advocate before you. Meet us today. Fill us, we pray in the name Jesus. Amen.
