Opening Prayer

Mighty God, thank you for the ways you provide for us and for all. You are abundant in power!

We praise your holy name! Build us up in this hour, that we might be made whole, and offer our praise to you, though our words and our actions. Amen

Prayers of the People

Sovereign God who pursues us. Your power and your glory are beyond our understanding. Your mercy is vast and your tenderness without end. Look in love upon us as we open our hearts in prayer, and seek your mercy and loving-kindness for the war-torn world and for people that are hurting, lonely, and lost. Calm our spirits, Lord. Help us to focus on the love you have given to us in Jesus Christ. Remind us again that the healing mercies of God extend to us this day as surely as they did to the people of long ago. We pause in worship on this day to hear your word, to be forgiven and healed, and to find ways to serve you in peace. As we lift up the names of those near and dear to us who stand in need of your healing mercies and compassionate love...some names we speak aloud; and others we utter in our hearts...we know that you hear our prayers. You know our needs and concerns before our voices can frame them. Help us accept the love you give to us. Empower us to take that love and use it for good in your world. Let the message of hope and compassion go forth from us again to our neighbors. And once again, let us know fully that you are with us. Amen.

Scripture

Isaiah 40:21-31

21 Have you not known? Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to live in,

23 who brings princes to naught and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25 To whom, then, will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength,  mighty in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted, 31 but those who wait for the Lord 

shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.