Praise for God’s Help

March 23, 2020

This week, as we settle into a life of social distancing to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, we will be focusing on how we can be Spiritually united. This week for our Field Guides, we invite you to meditate and pray over Scriptures that we hope will claim the promises that God is always with us and present in times of suffering and tribulation. As you meditate on these words, we invite you to remember that hundreds of people will be reading these same words and meditating on their promises in their own spaces and places. We will become united through this practice! We hope these scriptures bring you peace and comfort. Our prayer for this time is that our neighbors would remain healthy and safe, and our anxieties would subside to the peace that passes all understanding. Amen. 

Psalm 146

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
² I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

³ Do not put your trust in princes,
    in mortals, in whom there is no help.
⁴ When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
    on that very day their plans perish.

⁵ Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God,
⁶ who made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
⁷     who executes justice for the oppressed;
    who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
⁸     the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
    he upholds the orphan and the widow,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever,
    your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!

FIELD NOTES

“God won’t give you more than you can handle.” We all know that’s a falsehood, right? We don’t believe God causes bad things to happen. We live in a broken world, which will one day be restored. But until then, we cling to the promise that “the Lord will reign forever…” and be with us in these strange, scary, and difficult times. God is with us. Remember that. 

Emmanuel. God with us. In everything.

FAMILY FIELD GUIDE

• Where do you see God this week?
• Where can you be the hands of Jesus to others this week?

PRAYER GUIDE

Lord, we know you are with us in this pandemic. We know you are with our children, our parents, our grandparents. You are there.  Be our comfort, Emmanuel. Amen.