A Prayer for a Rainy Day (inspired by Genesis 9: 8-17)
O God, sometimes I hate it when the rain comes pouring down, with black clouds piled up high and the roof gutters overflowing.
But when the rain stops, and through the window I see a rainbow stretched
across the sky, my spirits lighten and I am cheered. I remember that when Noah
and his family stepped out of the ark to find a ruined earth you placed a
rainbow in their sky, as a sign that you had not forsaken them and would never
break your covenant with the world.
Lord, I needed that rainbow. At times I find it hard to hold on to my hopes for myself, for members of my family, or for the world where bad things can and do happen. Help me when I am depressed and hopeless to see the rainbow as your sign of hope. Raise my spirits within me, help me to do my part, and when I have done it leave the future with you.
I do not expect a trouble-free life any more than I expect a rainless winter or a cloudless summer. But in my heart of hearts I know you are faithful and will never abandon me, those I love, or the world around and beyond me.
Give me the patience and courage to carry on. Daily replenish my stores of faith and love and hope, so that no new trial or challenge may overwhelm me. May my life be a rainbow sign to others around me who might also be tempted to lose hope.
Lord, I needed that rainbow. At times I find it hard to hold on to my hopes for myself, for members of my family, or for the world where bad things can and do happen. Help me when I am depressed and hopeless to see the rainbow as your sign of hope. Raise my spirits within me, help me to do my part, and when I have done it leave the future with you.
I do not expect a trouble-free life any more than I expect a rainless winter or a cloudless summer. But in my heart of hearts I know you are faithful and will never abandon me, those I love, or the world around and beyond me.
Give me the patience and courage to carry on. Daily replenish my stores of faith and love and hope, so that no new trial or challenge may overwhelm me. May my life be a rainbow sign to others around me who might also be tempted to lose hope.
2 comments:
Ray, what you wrote there put me in mind of this hymn:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.
Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
Refrain
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
Refrain
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
I pray for the Lord’s blessing on you both x
Saw a lovely rainbow this morning, and thought of you and Elaine. Bless you, thoughts still with you. Naomi Mc Kee ( colleague of mine and friend of Elaine's from Sheffield) is expecting twin girls. Elaine would have been thrilled.
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