A Concord Pastor Comments: Monday Morning Offering: MLK Day 2020

A song for this holiday
and for today's Pause for Prayer...

From the depths of your heart, Lord,
   help me overcome my prejudice,
   my narrow-minded thinking,
   my bias, bigotry and rash judgments
-- and help me overcome the temptation to think
   that none of these faults are mine...

With the grace of your mercy, Lord,
   help me overcome my selfishness,
   my jealousy and greed,
   my pride and self-importance,
   my careless disregard of others' needs
-- and help me overcome the thought
   that I'm above such things...

With the power of your Spirit, Lord,
   help me overcome my laziness,
   my lustful thoughts and longings,
   my apathy and envy
   and my ungoverned appetites
-- and help me overcome the self-evaluation
   in which none of this applies to me...

With the justice of your word, Lord,
   help me overcome my tendencies:
   to stretch the truth, to cheat and lie,
   to take what isn't mine,
   to deny what's due to others
-- and help me overcome the notion
   that I'd never succomb to any of the above...

With the power of your love, Lord,
   help me overcome my fears,
   my worries and anxieties,
   my doubts and my uncertainties,
   my lack of trust in you and others
-- and deliver me from thinking
   that I'll never be strong in spirit...

With the strength of your arm, Lord,
   help me overcome what keeps me down,
   what holds me back,
   what slows me up,
   what locks me in...
-- and help me overcome the inertia
   that holds me captive in all these ways...

With all the grace that's yours to give, Lord
   help me overcome whatever keeps me
   from your presence and your power,
   your mercy and compassion,
   your love, healing, peace and joy...

Amen.