Prayer: Help us, O Lord, to keep guard over our lips. Save us from words that hurt, from gossip and slander and lies. Let us speak only encouragement and cheerfulness and to keep people on their feet so that all our words may minister grace, to Your honour and Glory. Amen. (FMP 1964)
The busy-ness of Drama. We watch shows on TV because they are entertaining. Reality TV shows entice us to watch them because we can not believe what is said or lived. Yet, these shows are all about drama. Drama is rather like gossip…. one doesn’t want to hear it nor see it but something entices us to have just one look. Okay, maybe two looks. Okay, maybe we have to watch that show again just to make sure it wasn’t as horrifying as we thought.
Do you have friends who seem to have a lot of drama in their life? By drama, we are not talking about a High School Musical nor the Stratford Festival. The drama we are talking about here is what our friends and family tell us about their lives that seems to go to the extreme. Drama… broken relationships, the car died, the house payments are behind, a job is lost, clothes no longer fit, someone comes down with pneumonia, a son or daughter is failing in school. And on and on.
We listen to the drama of people’s lives and suddenly our shoulders start to get burdened with not only our own loads but our friends’ and families’ loads. Before long, you realize that your friend’s/ families’ drama is dominating your life and you can’t think about anything else.
This is where daily prayer and a very specific prayer called the Prayer of Protection come into our lives. Prayer not only is our relationship with God but is also a way of giving our burdens to God so that we can live a fuller life in God’s presence.
Read Psalm 5
Read especially verse 11. Meditate upon this verse all day today: “But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You!” (Psalm 5: 11 NIV).
How will you take refuge in God today? How will you ask God for protection over you so that you don’t get loaded down by the burdens or drama of others?
Prayer of Protection…..Great God we ask for Your protection to be about us today in all that we do and in all that we say. Through the word of the Living Christ, we claim the cloak of light for our protection and place myself and all those with me this day under Christ’s light and guidance. We remember that Christ is the only source of power and nurture in our lives and it flows to all who need it. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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