Forty days alone,
a wilderness of thoughts, tempting and inviting thoughts, which could so easily have distracted you from your task, your mission,
your vision.
Yet you emerged,
stronger and more attuned to all that had to be done,
despite a time constraint that to our eyes would have seemed hopeless.
We too live in stressful times. Demands are made of our time, that leave so little for the important things of life. We are easily distracted
in the wilderness of our lives, by every call to go this way or that, by the pressure to turn stone into bread, by the challenge to leap from mountains,
and to do all that would keep us away from the truth. We listen to the voices of this world, and ignore the one who endured all this and so much more, and emerged triumphant, that we might not have to suffer so.
Forgive us, when we get distracted from our task.
Forgive us those times when we try
to be all things to all people, and by so doing fail to be anything to anyone.
John Birch
Lord God, sometimes you call us into the wilderness,
into those places where we must rely totally upon you for our survival.
At other times your Spirit drives us into those places,
and each time we have entered those places
we have been tempted and tested;
tempted to turn back before the time is right for turning back,
tempted to give up before the time of our testing and our growing is past.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Help us, Lord, should this be a time in our lives when we feel alone.
Help us to claim the blessings that you have prepared for us
in the middle of our wilderness.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Lord God,
in this time of conflict between nations,
when we are tested to see if we will do justice as well as love mercy,
we pray for guidance, and for your light
to enlighten rulers and nations.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Richard Fairchild
