A Prayer of Praise
You alone are exalted higher than the sky. The greatest people and the greatest nations are like drops in a bucket that is carried along by you and you alone. The Milky Way galaxy has 100 billion stars, and there are 10 trillion galaxies of equal size; yet you know every star by name. Every blade of grass in the prairies, every needle in the pine forests of the West, every piece of sand on the beaches of the Caribbean and south Pacific, you know their number, and we stand in awe of you.
You alone gave the minds to shape the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the Great Wall in China, and the Taj Mahal in India. Your word lifted up Mount Everest and cut out Grand Canyon. You alone paint the Northern Lights, grow the vast Amazon Rainforest, and generate year by year the great migration of the Serengeti. The deepest human minds cannot fathom all that you are, yet a small child can know you as Father.
You save weak people––the humble, the meek, the feeble. A bruised reed you will not break, and a faintly burning wick you will not snuff out. You come as a Doctor for the sick and as a Warrior for the demonized. Anyone who calls upon your name as Lord you will save. You are King; we are paupers. You are clean; we are dirty. Yet you come to us, removing our filth and clothing us with exotic and royal robes of Christ’s righteousness.
We praise you this morning for sunshine and pancakes, for birthdays and picnics, for summer flowers and waterfalls, for friendships and family. We praise you that amidst storms, darkness, and chaos, you are constant, and we praise you that when questions and confusion persist our hope can rest confidently in you. We ask that you would be gracious to guide our elders in paths of righteousness for your namesake. We pray that as we ready to start a new year of ministry to our children and adults, that you would save and satisfy.
You are the greatest wonder of this world and the greatest treasure that we can discover. Open our eyes that we may behold your beauty; open our hearts that we may delight in your bigness and trust in your sovereignty and love; open our hands that we may give and serve generously; open our minds that we may encounter greatness in your Word.
For the greatness of your glory we pray. Amen.
––Jason S. DeRouchie (7/30/17)
