Broadway Baptist Church - Louisville, Kentucky

My Grace Is Sufficient

Pastoral Prayer, September 23, 2007

O God, we give thanks for the abundance in our lives.
For the times when our cup overflows.
For the times when you do for us so much more than we ever could have imagined.

But forgive us when we are guilty of seeing abundance as an entitlement.
Forgive us when we seem content only when our silos are filled to overflowing.
Forgive us when we measure success by having more than someone else has rather than by having what we need
Forgive us when we forget what you said to the Apostle Paul: “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

Help us to find peace, help us to find satisfaction, in sufficiency.
Grant us the wisdom of seeing the sin in avarice and sloth.
Help us to see that too much is, indeed, too much.

Lord, help us to stop seeking and to begin finding.
Help us to stop yearning and to start enjoying.

Remind us, Lord, that your truth in the Bible was so often revealed in the wilderness, the land of little.

Help us to see that the world is too much with us.
Help us to step back, and to step away, long enough to recall what life is really all about.
Help us to appreciate the greatest gifts you have given us:
People who love us and friends who stand beside us.

And even as you teach us to give thanks for the basics of life, remind us to pray for those who do not have them.

Even as we learn to give thanks for the sufficiency of the food in our pantries, remind us of the millions who have neither pantries nor food.

Even as we learn to give thanks for those who share the journey with us, remind us of lonely people who feel as though they are making the journey alone.

Even as we learn to give thanks for the adequacy of our paychecks, remind us of people who do not have jobs.
Even as we learn to give thanks for hearts beating strongly and minds thinking clearly, remind us of people who can take neither for granted.

Lord, when we leave this place, we will stride once again into a world that shouts, “More, More, More!”

Help us then to attend to the voice of you spirit whispering, My grace is sufficient for thee.

Amen.

“My grace is sufficient for thee.”
2 Cor 12:9: