September 11, 2008
The
White House Commission
on the National
Moment of Remembrance
Compiled
by a Navy Chaplain
Almighty God, the past year will be
indelibly inscribed in our memories.
We looked
with horror on the terrorist attacks of last September 11th.
But we looked with honor on acts of courage by ordinary people
who sacrificed themselves to prevent further death and destruction.
We shed
our tears in a common bond of grief for those we loved and lost.
We journeyed through a dark valley, but your light has led us to a place of
hope.
You have turned our grief into determination.
We are resolved to do what is good, and right, and just.
Help us
to remember what it means to be Americans—
a people endowed with abundant blessings.
Help us to cherish the freedoms we enjoy and inspire us to stand
with courage, united as one Nation in the midst of any adversity.
Lord,
hear this prayer for our Nation. Amen.
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Drought
I
sat in the car and listened to her cry. Although the pain was hers it wasn’t
totally all about her. I heard her crying for the ministry, for the church, for
her family, for her enemies. I heard her cry for a calling of God, for
vindication of her and for the drought to end of where God seems so distant and
a far.
We
have all gone through times like that in our life, where we seem to be in
spiritual or emotional deserts. We look at those around us and they seem to be
blessed and we are under intense pressure, groaning for relief.
We
cry out for God and He doesn’t seem to be listening. We look to others, but
they don’t seem to understand what we are going through. We don’t even know
how to express what we are in need of.
Sometimes
it happens because we have turned away from God in pursuit of other things.
Sometimes it is because God has called us to do something and we refuse to
listen.
Perhaps
it is because of unrepentant sin in our lives. Maybe we have hardened our hearts
to Him and others.
Sometimes
there is a lesson we need to learn. Frankly sometimes, only God Himself
understands why we are going through a drought.
We
need to turn to God in those times and seek His face. To give up those things
which have distracted us and take us away from Him. To ask Him to show us what
we need to be learning. To ask for His strength to ride out the drought.
When
we have done those things, we need to find the joy of knowing Him regardless of
our circumstances. He is still there with us, even in the desert times.
He
walked with Israel the 40 years they wandered in the desert. He was with David
in the physical deserts and spiritual droughts of his life.
He
is beside you as you struggle with your desert.
In
His time He promises:
"The
poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are
parched with thirst.
But
I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I
will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into
springs.
I
will put in the desert, the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,
so
that people may see and know, may consider and understand,
that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has
created it.
Isaiah
41:17-20 NIV
He
is not just speaking here of physical water, but of His living water
For
the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them
to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes. Revelation 7:17 NIV
As
you pass through the drought seek Him and His living water.
Sometimes
the tears you cry may be the drops that end your own drought!
May
you be filled to overflowing with streams of His living water and may you soak
up all He has for you.
God
bless.
Darrel
Mason