Faithbase

Good morning again, we're still in Psalm 9, and again I'm just going to stick with a couple verses here. Verses 9 and 10 of Psalm 9, The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble, and those who know your name will put their trust in you. For you, Lord Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you. And Lord, you are, we thank you that you are a refuge for the oppressed. In fact, throughout Scripture, all throughout Scripture, we see, Heavenly Father, that your heart is for the downtrodden, the oppressed, the weak, the vulnerable, and that we as followers of yours in Jesus Christ must have that same concern for those who are in distress, those who are in need, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan. Lord, we know that there needs to be law and order in the sense that rules are established by your authorities, that the authorities that are in place have been put there by you, Lord God, and we know that the laws that are in place have a purpose of restraining evil and keeping order, and so Lord, we pray that the, I'm just thinking about our southern border, would be, there would be order there, that the immigrants who are attempting to come into this nation illegally would simply be routed through the proper channels and have a proper introduction, I guess you'd say, to this nation, and Lord, we don't want to turn away the oppressed, not by any means. We don't want to turn away those who are in need, of course not, but we simply pray, Lord God, that we can have order in this nation's immigration policies and that those laws and rules can be followed, and then that we as Christians can mirror you, Lord God, because you are a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble, and Lord, your people, we're supposed to imitate you as dear children, Paul tells us, imitate their father, we imitate you, we're supposed to imitate Jesus Christ, who likewise had a heart for the oppressed and the needy and the helpless. Lord, give us that kind of heart, but also give us wisdom to know how to express that love of God to those who are in need and to do so with wisdom, to do so in the most effective way possible, not to circumvent the laws, but to work within the system, and if the system needs to be changed, Lord God, that we would have the wisdom to know what needs to change and how to do that. Lord, those who know your name will put their trust in you, and we certainly this morning, Lord God, we trust you and love you. All the things that we deal with, Lord, on the world stage are so many things, and yet right now in each one of us, in our personal lives, I'm sure that there are many who are joining me in prayer this morning who deal with difficulties, deal with situations. Lord, you are the one who can take care of those problems. They won't necessarily go away in a flash, but you can give us strength and wisdom. Lord, we can look to your scripture and know how to navigate the situations that we face in life. We can look to the power of your Holy Spirit to give us peace and comfort in the middle of difficulty, in the middle of times that might be anxious and hard to deal with, Lord God. We know you. We know your name, Yahweh. We know Jesus, our Lord and Savior, so we put our trust in you. For you, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you, and Lord, may we seek you this morning. May we seek first the kingdom of God, seek first relationship with God in Jesus Christ, and Lord, the kingdom, as we've talked about before, is simply the reign and the rule of Jesus Christ in my life and in the life of each person that does know you, that each person who knows you, Lord, would have a strong sense of your love and your peace this morning, Lord God, because you have not forsaken us. Even though the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket, as the saying goes, you have not forsaken us, and you are still in control. Lord, sometimes the problems and the things that we see around us are taking place simply as a means of awakening your people and others to the fact that you are in control, and that if we neglect or ignore your ways, we will reap the consequences. Paul said to the church in Galatia, whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap, and I think that's true for the individual, it's true for the corporate entities, for nations and people groups, Lord God. You sow to sin and to darkness, you will reap that same kind of horror at some point, Lord God, so I pray that we would know that you have not forsaken us, that you love us and will watch over us, and we thank you for that, and we pray you'll do so this day, that you'll watch over us, give us hope, give us strength, give us health as well, Lord God, give us energy and focus that we can be the people that you've called us to be, and to serve you in whatever way that you may have placed before us this day, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.