Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

"I have loved you with an everlasting love…"
Jeremiah (31:3).

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, a rabbi and musician who
died in the 1990s, often said: "We need to teach our
kids to love God, but it's even more important to teach
how much God loves them!" It's so important to teach
our kids and to know ourselves how much we are loved
by God. This knowledge cannot be underestimated.
People who know they are loved by God know that
they are valuable and loveable no matter what anyone
else says. People with that knowledge will have the
courage to do what is right and the resolve to treat
themselves right. Moreover, they will have the love to
pass on to others and give back to God.

So as you go through your day, remember –
God loves you! More than any of us will ever know.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Shortly before his death, the famous American missionary
doctor, Tom Dooley, returned to the U.S. to raise additional
funds for his hospital in Southeast Asia. As a doctor, he
knew he had terminal cancer and would soon be dead.
However, the big question on his mind was whether, under
the circumstances, he should spend his last days in the
country of his birth or return to his hospital in Southeast
Asia where the people needed him. While he was debating
this in his mind, a telegram arrived from some of the medical
corpsmen he had trained to be his helpers at the hospital.
"We need you here," the message read, and then went on
to say: "While you are gone, we are the fingers of your flesh
to heal the sick. We are your ears to hear their cries of pain.
We are your heart to love them." And that is precisely the
response Jesus asks of us. He sends us into a world and
a community where people need us. Consequently, we
pray to the Lord Jesus: "We are the fingers of your flesh
to heal them, we are your ears to hear their cries of pain,
we are your heart to love them."

 Sunday Sermons Online

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the achings of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise