Daily Prayer for Thursday, June 18, 2020

​O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be…
                                                         —-Robert Robinson, 1758
Preparation for worship
Sit in a relaxed position. Take a slow, deep breath (or 2 or 3 or as many as needed) until you feel your body, mind, and soul begin to relax and rest in the Spirit.  Take time to reflect as you move through this time of worship…

Opening Sentences                                                         Joshua 24: 15, 24
Choose this day whom you will serve.
We will serve and obey the Lord our God.

Prayer                                             Book of Common Worship, PC(USA), 2018
O God, your blessed Son came into the world
that he might destroy the works of evil
and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.
Grant that, having this hope,
we may purify ourselves as he is pure;
that when he comes again with power and great glory,
we may be made like him
in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.  Amen.     

Hymn of the Day
On The Willows, from the musical Godspell.  Pray as you listen to this music, based on the reading that follows.

Reading of the Day:                                                                   Psalm 137 
1 By the rivers of Babylon--
    there we sat down and there we wept
    when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
    we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors
    asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How could we sing the Lord’s song
    in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
    above my highest joy.
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
    the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!
    Down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
    Happy shall they be who pay you back
    what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones
    and dash them against the rock!

Prayers for self and others
Please pray today for those who are being affected by COVID 19. Today please pray for countries where the virus is recurring in great numbers, that their people would be able to stay well.  As we hear of more friends who are directly affected, or who are working in high risk places, we will list them here.  Use this time to lift your joys, concerns, and hopes to God.

Benediction:
Be watchful,
stand firm in your faith,
be courageous and strong.
Let all that you do be done in love.
Amen.