Praying to our Creator God

 How strange that the slogan “All Lives Matter” has been a recent source of dissension and debate! Instead of viewing those words as a political or social statement, let’s try to get a glimpse of God’s perspective. 

Revealed throughout the Bible, this higher view shows us clearly that all lives matter to our Creator God – the God of Love Who favors each of us equally and uniquely – the Holy God Who created each of us to be forever in His presence, His family.

Perhaps this Bible prayer from the book of Psalms will help us to refocus our vision.

 

Psalm 139:13-24 – contemporary version

Lord, You formed my inward parts.
You wove me in my mother’s womb!
I give thanks to You, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works fill me with wonder,
and my very soul knows that quite well.

My frame was never hidden from You
when I came together in secret – as though
skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes have seen my embryonic self,
and in Your book You have written
all the days ordained for me – even before
my day of birth had yet begun.

How precious are Your thoughts, O God!
How vast the sum of them!

If I tried to count them, it’d be like trying
to count each particle of sand.

When I’m awake, I’m with You, but oh, I wish
You’d get rid of malice and hatefulness!

I wish violent people would stay far from me,
for they say terrible things about You,
and Your enemies take Your Name in vain.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Test me to know my anxious thoughts, and see

if there’s anything hateful or hurtful in me.

Lead me in Your everlasting way.

From the Book of Bible Prayers – actual prayers of the Bible collected from a variety of translations and paraphrased into everyday English by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019

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Psalm 139:13-24 – KJV

For thou hast possessed my reins:

thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. 

I will praise thee;

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

marvellous are thy works; and that

my soul knoweth right well.

 

My substance was not hid from thee,

when I was made in secret,

and curiously wrought

in the lowest parts of the earth.

 

Thine eyes did see my substance,

yet being unperfect; and in thy book

all my members were written,

which in continuance were fashioned,

when as yet there was none of them.

 

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me,

O God! how great is the sum of them!

 

If I should count them, they are more

in number than the sand: when I awake,

I am still with thee.

 

Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God:

depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.

For they speak against thee wickedly,

and thine enemies take thy name in vain.

 

Search me, O God, and know my heart:

try me, and know my thoughts:

 

And see if there be any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

From the Book of KJV Prayers - actual prayers from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) collected by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019 

 

 

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