Prayer for Today, Monday, May 2

Ever Present Spirit,

The news tells us of devastating storms in this country and the death of a terrorist on the other side of the world. We are reminded we do not live in a vacuum and events next door and in distant places impact our lives. Help us to celebrate, when justified, and grieve when it is appropriate. In all things, O Lord, we trust in You. Forgive us when our reliance on You is lacking. Forgive us when we seek to be the masters of our own fate. You are our God and we are Your people. Surround us, O Lord, with Your love and grace. And lead us down the path of faith and hope as we understand we are citizens of the world. This is our prayer in Jesus name, AMEN.
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Birdene Schoonover is in St. Mary’s Hospital. Please pray for Birdene. Her 87th birthday is tomorrow.

Gene Mason was hospitalized on Saturday and released yesterday morning. Please pray for Gene.

Please pray for Paul Denny and his daughter, Paula, and her family. Her husband, Doug De Wolf, died last week.

The scripture for today is Matthew 21:12-27:
Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?”He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”
When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.”So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

Grace and peace,

John McLemore