Now before we look at this morning’s sermon text, let us again turn to God in prayer.

“Our Father in heaven, indeed it is such a joy once again to be able to gather with your people to hear Your Word. We pray that You will grant help from above through the help of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds. Open our hearts to see wondrous truth once again from Your Word, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Now so as we look at this passage, I want you to imagine with me a close Christian brother who has recently experienced a relationship failure. Now this Christian brother or perhaps a Christian sister of yours is devastated, deeply saddened. In fact, this is not his (let’s use a Christian brother) his first relationship failure. And at this point of time, he throws his hands up in the air and says that I’m not, I can’t do anything on my own already. If God were to bring to me a partner suitable for me, He would have to show me. He would have to let me know.

In fact, didn’t God provided a wife for Adam while he was asleep? So this Christian brother says this to you: “I can’t do anything on my own already. I have to give it up to God.”. And what would you say to this Christian brother? Or suppose a church that you know of has been in some difficult times over this past couple of months, especially we know that it is the COVID season. Monthly collection has been declining and this church is finding it difficult to sustain itself, to keep the lights on, to keep the electricity on, to pay the monthly rent, to pay the church worker. It’s difficult time.

And one of the church members comes forward and says that: “You know, we have a piece of land behind our church. Why not we sell this piece of land and with the money that we have sustain us for a period of time”? And yet another church member comes and says that: “Yeah, why not with the money that we have selling this piece of land, let us invest and generate some returns, and that can you know pull us through a longer period of time”?

But there is another church member who comes forward and says that: “You know, we shouldn’t do that. You know in these difficult times, we should have faith. We should trust God. We ought to look to Him because this is God’s church, and He will provide for His church like He has promised in the Scripture”. What would you say to the members of this church or to this church? Well, suppose there is an elderly couple who are also members of a church for a long time. Here’s an elderly couple who comes to the leaders of the church and say that you know, God has really put it in our hearts the desire to want to reach out to the people in Congo alright.

We have thought about it, we have prayed about it, and our heart’s desire is to see the people in Congo saved. And they come to the church leaders. The church elders of course hear them out, listen to what they have to say, and says: “You know, can we think about this for a while? Because number one, you are an elderly couple. You’re old. And number two, we’re not sure if at this point of time we have the necessary funds to support this mission trip that you have in mind because we also need to consider whether this is in line with the mission of the church in this area.”

So this is what the elders told the couple. The couple says that: “You know, no, no, no, we should trust God in this case. We need to have faith. After all, we’re talking about going to save souls in Congo. And this is our heart’s desire. And on top of all this, don’t worry. We will pay on our own. We will not burden the church. We know that we can’t go on our own. There cannot be freelance missionaries right, but we will not burden the church. We will go on our own.” What would you say to this couple or to this church? What should these people do alright?

You know these people well, like from your interaction, you can tell that this is a godly church. These are godly brothers and sisters. These are people who love the Lord. These are Christians, but Christians are not spared from having to make decisions in circumstances, particularly in difficult situations right, Christians are not spared from this. So how do you draw the line between trusting and trying? The sermon title this morning: “Trusting vs Trying”. How do you draw the line?

I’m not talking about trusting and trying a salvific way, it’s not, salvation is not our concern here. But in our day-to-day lives as we come across situations, particularly in difficult situations, how do you decide whether to trust God or to try? Now a preacher once mentioned the illustrations I gave you just a while ago and say that as you look at broad Christianity, there is a spectrum alright. There are on the one hand whom he calls the “spiritual suzies”, on the one hand. And then, on the other hand, there are those who we call the “practical patties”. No offense on the women, we can say the “spiritual Simon” and the “practical Peter”. No problem, Peter here. Yeah, so he said there’s a spectrum of Christians.

Now the spiritual suzies are those who don’t need to think about anything when they make decisions. They don’t have to plan, they don’t really have to analyse or to calculate, but rather they just say: “Let’s trust God. Let’s have faith. Let us go with faith, knowing that God will provide.” Now they are like the George Mullers of our generation perhaps. Those are the spiritual suzies. And then, on the other hand, you have the practical patties who are people who need to plan and calculate and count for every single thing that happens.

And then they go again and again, back to the drawing board as they, you know, carry out their decisions in whatever situations they face. I mean we’re talking about lost souls here. We need to, you know, think carefully talking about the church fund. We’re talking about a long-term relationship. So they, again and again, need to calculate and count and do all the risk analysis alright. And so this preacher says that we all fall within this spectrum. It is a matter of whether you are more on the spiritual suzies or spiritual Simon side, or you’re more on the practical patty or the practical Peter side alright.

So all that to say by a means of introduction as we now come to look at our sermon text for this morning- Ezra chapter 8. And so if you have Ezra chapter 8 open in front of you, now what we see here in this passage is a series of actions and decisions that were made by this man, Ezra as he now prepares to lead the second wave of exile back from Babylon to Jerusalem. You see for example in verse 15, a lot of action verbs here: “Now I gathered them”. Verse 16: “Then I sent”. Verse 17: “And I gave them a command. Verse 21: “Then I proclaimed a fast”. Verse 24: “And I separated”. Verse 26: “I even weighed”.

So there are a lot of action verbs here in play, and I think Ezra is trying to highlight the fact that here is a situation where he is having to make decisions. He’s having to make a lot of actions as it were. And so the question you want to ask is: Ezra, what helped you to make those decisions? Did you trust God? Did you pray? Did you not pray? Did you do everything? Did you do anything? So as we look at this chapter, this is what we want to try to see from this passage alright.

And I think if you’ve been following this series, you are aware that a couple of weeks ago, we were introduced to this man, Ezra in Ezra chapter 7, who was a scribe, who was a priest, who was the leader of the second wave of exiles back from Babylon to Jerusalem. And we saw who he was, we saw what made him who he was, we saw his motivation. And so if Ezra 7 introduced us to the person of Ezra, this chapter (Ezra chapter 8) introduces us to the process as to which Ezra begins to lead the exiles back from Babylon to Jerusalem. Okay?

Now so as we come to this chapter this morning, I have only two points. Two points, bearing again those scenarios we just spoken in mind. This is the first point alright. The first point is this: we want to look number one at the problems alright- the problems. And so as we look at this chapter, we see at the outset as, I’m not sure if you’re able to detect that, there’s some problems here. But there are two main problems that I’d like you all to see from this passage in Ezra chapter 8. Number one, we call it the problem of temple servants. The problem of temple servants.

Look at Ezra chapter 8. Now the first 14 verses are really again a list of names. You know that Ezra is a scribe, he’s a very meticulous scribe. He gave us a list of names back in Ezra chapter 2 which are those that came back the first wave. We saw fifty thousand names there, including women and children. And here in Ezra chapter 8, the first 14 verses are again a list of names of the second wave of exiles, those who are returning. This time, not fifty thousand, it’s about seven thousand alright. So smaller group but still big, nonetheless. Seven thousand. This includes also women and children alright.

But the names are not our focus this morning as we look at this first problem that Ezra has, the problem of temple servants, look with me at verse 15. Now verse 15, Ezra says: “Now I gathered them by the river that flows to Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I looked among the people and the priests”, and there was a problem. You say, what was the problem? Ezra said: “I found none of the sons of Levi there”.

Now, this is a problem, and you ask: Why is that a problem? So what happens is Ezra is preparing to go back and he is sitting the people down, and as he surveys through those people that are in front of him, in front of this place called “the river that flows to Ahava”, he sees that there are no sons of Levi. Another word for sons of Levi is ‘the Levites’. In some other translations, you can say ‘the Nethinims’. There are no Levites, and that is a problem.

And why is that a problem? Who are the Levites? Now you know that the Levites are people who are tasked with the responsibility of upkeeping the temple. They are people who are mainly there to assist the priests in their priestly duties. So they are important to enable the priests to be able to make the sacrifices in the temple, to prepare, to maintain, to upkeep the temple. They are the people who are supposed to be responsible for taking care of the temple alright. And as Ezra looks at these people, he sees there are no Levites.

There is a problem because, in Ezra chapter 7, they have with them a lot of temple articles. As they were about to go back to Jerusalem, King Artaxerxes gave the temple articles to Ezra to bring back to Jerusalem. But there are no Levites. There are no Levites, that means that there’s nobody to carry the temple articles because temple articles are sacred. You cannot just let the tribe of Judah carry your temple articles, or the tribe of Simeon carry the temple articles. It has to be the Levites as ordained by God. So there is a problem.

So what happened? What did Ezra do? Now, look at verse 16. Now verse 16, Ezra says: “Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, leaders; also for Joiarib and Elnathan, men of understanding. And I gave them a command for Iddo the chief man at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say to Iddo and his brethren the Nethinim at the place Casiphia—that they should bring us servants for the house of our God.”. Now Ezra told these men in verse 16 (Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, etc.) I know a man. I know a man called Iddo alright. Iddo is in Casiphia. Go to him. He has temple servants, and maybe he can provide for us some Nethinims or some Levites that can help us as we go back to Jerusalem.

And we know what the outcome was at verse 18: “Then, by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and brothers, eighteen men; and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty men; also of the Nethinim, whom David and the leaders had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim. All of them were designated by name.”. Now here we see that Iddo provided Ezra with temple servants. In fact, they have somewhere between 220 to 250 Levites.

First problem solved, but the question you want to ask is: What led you to make those decisions? Did you pray? Did you not pray? Did you trust God? Did you do anything? And we’ll come to that in a moment. So this is the first problem- the problem of temple servants. The second problem. The second problem is what we call the problem of safety. The problem of safety. Look at verse 21. Verse 21: “Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.”.

Now here’s Ezra, you can imagine the scene. He’s, you know, he’s surveying the seven thousand people in front of him, and he’s getting ready to go back to Jerusalem. And naturally, this will be if not on the top, the top of his mind: the problem of safety. Remember this is a time when you don’t just get into your cars and turn on your engine, switch on your aircon, and drive alright. You are talking about a four-month journey. With foot, you have to walk along the desert. With the families, with the women and the children and their belongings, with no GPS, no Waze. No R&R, you cannot stop and take a break and continue.

And we know that this journey is laden with dangers because we see in just the second verse in verse 22, we see that there are enemies on the road. We see in verse 31 that there are enemy and ambush along the road. And so this is a dangerous journey with seven thousand people behind you. And to make matters worse, you are very rich. You’re extremely wealthy because you have with you the gold and the silver that are supposedly to be placed in the temple when you return back to Jerusalem. Now so here is a problem. Here is a problem: the problem of safety.

And what did Ezra do? We saw in verse 21: “Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way”. Now Ezra fasted, and then he went. Now I mean we ask the question: Ezra had two options right. The first option is he could have gone to the king and said: “Oh king, I need some help.”. The second option is to trust God and go. But Ezra decided to trust God and go. Now, why? Why? We come to that again in the second point.

But at this point, we see that ultimately they arrived back in Jerusalem safely alright. We know that they were able to reach safely. Now you see in verse 32: “So we came to Jerusalem, and stayed there three days.”. So they were able to arrive safely. Now so that is the first point we want to see: the problems alright. The problems that faced Ezra, which is the problem of temple servants and the problem of safety.

And now as we look at the second point, if you are thinking to yourself: “Ah, I’m waiting to see if there is a black and white you know guide as to what helped Ezra to make the decisions that he made”, you might be disappointed because we know that the Bible is not a rule book. It is not a, you know one size fits all type of situation. And you cannot turn to “Third Solutions 3:1” to see in this situation, I do this; and then that situation, I do this. It’s not like this. The Bible is not a rule book. And so in our second point, as we come to consider what did Ezra do and how did he make those decisions that he made, we’ll call the second point the principles. The principles.

So we look at the problems. Now we look at the principles, and bearing in mind you know the scenarios that we have spoken about at the start, and bearing in mind what we have seen that before Ezra in front of him as he looked at his problems, we want to now see the principles. Now remember you have a Christian brother who is heartbroken; you have a church who is trying to pay off its monthly commitment; you have an elderly couple who wants to go on missions; you have a friend who is having a terminal illness, who’s deciding whether or not to seek treatment.

What should you do? Now here are some principles, and I have here four principles that I think we can draw from this text. And the first principle is this, we go through all the four principles. And the first principle is this: First, seek the Lord. First, seek the Lord. I think that is abundantly clear as we look at Ezra facing his second problem- the problem of safety. And what was his first course of action? We’ve read just now that Ezra proclaimed a fast at the river of Ahava in verse 23: “So we fasted and entreated our God for this”.

So here is Ezra’s first course of action in the face of a problem. He fasted. He prayed. You look with me at chapter 9, just the next chapter and verse 5: “Now at the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God.”. Here is Ezra praying again. Chapter 10 verse 1: “Now while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large congregation of men, women, and children assembled to him from Israel”. 

Ezra is still praying. You see, this is Ezra’s course of action. It’s to seek the Lord. And I wonder how many of us here have this type of attitude in us that whenever we are faced with a situation, particularly a difficult situation, the first thing that we do is to seek the Lord, is to seek God, is to pray to God, is to ask for His help. So when you receive your exam results and you see the word ‘F’; when you get called into your boss’s office and are told that you have one month to serve your notice; when you sit beside the bed of your sick grandmother for the last time.

Or when you hear the words “it’s cancer” or “it’s Covid-19”, what is your first course of action? Is your first course of action to call this healthcare professional and this doctor and this health medical person and seek this advice, and this police and all these things? And I’m not saying all these things are wrong. These are the right things to do, but is that your first course of action? Is that the first thing that you do, or is your attitude like that of Hannah who was desperate?

She knew she wanted a son. She wanted a child, but what did she do? She didn’t go to her husband or didn’t try based on her own ability, didn’t go to the priest, but she prayed to God and wept bitterly because she knew that if she were to have a child, it must come from God. Or is your attitude like that of Daniel whom we’ve seen a couple of weeks ago that when he knew that a plot was hatched against him to kill him, we know that he knew that there was a plot hatch to kill him.

Was his first course of action to go to the king and say that: “King Darius, this is a plot. These are people who are trying to kill me, or to go to the people who are trying to trap you and say that you are evil? Why are you doing this to me?” Was that his first course of action, or was his first action to go back home to get down on his knees, to open his window, and with his face towards Jerusalem, he prayed? Or perhaps that of our supreme example, our Lord Jesus Christ, who when He was faced with the hardest challenge in His life when He was at Gethsemane, anticipating the cross, what was the thing that Jesus did?

Now He prayed to the Father and said: “Father, if it is Your will, let this cup pass from Me.”. Now should that not be our attitude as God’s children now that we not only can but we must come to God in prayer? Like the hymn writer says: “Are you weak and heavy-laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Saviour, still our refuge—Take it to the Lord in prayer.”. Or we see again examples after examples in the New Testament where Paul writes to the churches and say that we should pray without ceasing.

Now we should pray always, make mention of you in my prayers always. Or when Paul writes to the Philippian church in Philippians 4:6, and he says to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to the Lord”. So is that your first course of action as you are faced with a situation? Perhaps a difficult situation, perhaps not as difficult a situation. Is that your first course of action? So that becomes our first principle this morning, which is to first seek the Lord.

Now secondly. Secondly is this: Now then decide based upon available means. First, seek the Lord, then decide based upon available means. Now we know we are to seek God. And as we pray to God in any situation that we face, what is usually one of the things that we always pray for? That God would give us wisdom in dealing with this situation, with this person, with this friend, with this couple, with this child so that God will give us wisdom. And that is what we see here alright when Ezra was faced with a problem- the problem of temple servants.

He knows that there is no temple servants, but what did he do? He said I know a man alright. There is a means to him that he can use, that he can go to, and this man is Iddo. Iddo has temple servants, and Iddo was able to provide him with temple servants alright. So that solved his first problem. But not just that. You look with me at verse 24. Verse 24: “Then I separated twelve of the leaders of the priests—Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them— and weighed out to them the silver, the gold, and the articles, the offering for the house of our God which the king and his counsellors and his princes, and all Israel who were present, had offered.

I even weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, silver articles weighing one hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold, twenty gold basins worth a thousand drachmas, and two vessels of fine polished bronze, precious as gold. And I said to them, “You are holy to the LORD; the articles are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD God of your fathers. Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD.”

Now here what is Ezra doing? Ezra has gotten the Levites, but here he’s saying that you know he’s going to further separate them into groups. So he will separate this group here, and you handle this portion of money. And then this group here, you handle this portion. Now here you have this portion, watch and keep them until you reach Jerusalem. I mean that is a wise decision right. You are traveling on foot, and there are robbers and ambushes along the way.

And what is a wise thing to do? Is to not have all the possessions grouped in one area and so when somebody attacks, they can take everything away, but rather to separate and segregate and entrust and ensure accountability so that when they reach Jerusalem, you weigh and you count and you give this to the priest at the temple in Jerusalem. So that is a wise thing to do.

Likewise here we see an example of Ezra deciding what to do based upon available means. Seek the Lord, and then decide based upon available means. And so likewise, if you’re faced with a situation and you have sought the Lord, if you know a doctor, call the doctor. If you need a policeman, call the policeman. If you need a recruiter, call the recruiter. If you know of the good godly potential partner, what’s stopping you from reaching out to this person? We need to decide based upon available means.

Of course, the means must be means that are right. It cannot be means that ungodly or wrong. You cannot say I lost my job, so I know there’s a means that I can do to steal. And so I will go ahead. And so those are not the means that I’m talking about here. It must be correct means. Decide based upon available means because God has placed means in front of us to guide us, to help us along the way as we progress along our Christian life. So that is the second point or the second principle, which is to decide based upon available means. 

Now thirdly. Thirdly is this: occasionally avoid using means when God’s honour is at stake. Occasionally avoid using means when God’s honour or God’s testimony is at stake. I say: “Oh, how do you come out with this principle?” You look with me at verse 22 of Ezra 8. Verse 22, and I highlight the word ‘occasionally’ here. ‘Occasionally’, I’m highlighting the word ‘occasionally’ avoid using means when God’s testimony is at stake. Ezra says: “For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.”.

Now here is Ezra. We know that he has a situation that he needs protection because he is going on a long journey, and he needs protection from dangers. So he needs to have some assurance of safety. And we knew again that he had two options alright. The first option is to go to the king and say that: “Oh king, I need some help. I need an escort.” And we knew that he had the means to ask that of the king. Now we just said that you know if you have sought the Lord, then decide based upon available means.

And here is Ezra. He had the means. The king likes him. The king is in favour with him. And so it wouldn’t be too difficult for Ezra to go to the king and say: “Can I have an armed escort to guide us along the way as we go to Jerusalem?” But you see, Ezra didn’t do that. Why? Now verse 22 said: “For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen”. Now we cannot exactly know what the conversation was between Ezra and the king, but it could be somewhere along the lines of Ezra telling King Artaxerxes that you know, we have Yahweh who is the great God, who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

He made all things, He holds everything within the power of His hands. We can trust Him, we can lean on Him. He protects us if you are His people. But if you are not His, if you don’t belong to Him, now His wrath abides upon you. So we have a great God. We have a powerful God, but we have this situation here. Can we get an armed escort to guide us on our way back to Jerusalem? So that could be what happened. We don’t exactly know as I mentioned. That could be what happened when Ezra was speaking to the king and his officials.

So the king, I mean Ezra is probably the best person to assess the situation and he may see that by him requesting this escort, it might in a sense throw the king off a little bit. So is your God powerful or is your God not powerful? Remember here is Ezra speaking to a pagan king. King Artaxerxes is a pagan king, and officials are probably pagan as well. So that might cause some confusion maybe when Ezra is asking for an armed escort. Of course, we know that if you are Christians, God works through means and there wouldn’t be any problem with asking for help in this case.

But Ezra chose to not do that. He chose to not ask for an escort from the king. It says here Ezra was ashamed. We ask the question: Is it wrong for Ezra to request for an escort from the king? Now we wouldn’t say that Ezra is in fault or Ezra is sinning even if he were to ask an escort from the king. Why? Because we knew that Nehemiah did the same thing. Nehemiah, when he came back with his third wave of exiles, there was an escort. So the king escorted Nehemiah and his third wave back. So here we don’t have information to say that no, Ezra is sinning if he’s asking for an escort.

In fact, we don’t believe that that is the case. But Ezra is choosing to not use the means that is in front of him because of God’s honour, because of God’s glory and the testimony of His name. So again there may be times in your life, in my life, in the life of your children, in the life of your church, in the life of your community when the avoidance or the choice to not use means or when you want to use some means, that may need to take a backseat as opposed to the glory of God. So the immediate resolution of your current problem may have to take a backseat for allowing the name of God to be glorified, to be honoured as is in this case alright.

And so that is our third principle. Now first, seek the Lord. Then, decide based upon available means. Occasionally avoid using means if God’s name is at stake. Fourthly and lastly, in all things see God’s good hand behind it. In all things see God’s good hand behind it. I think as you read through this passage, as was read to you just now, you would have seen phrases repeated again and again like in verse 18: “And then, by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding”.

You also see in verse 22: “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him”. Now verse 31: “And the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road.”. Now see, this is a pattern with this man, Ezra. I mean we’ve seen in the previous chapter that this phrase is also repeated again and again. So in all things that befall Ezra, he always sees the good hand of God behind him or upon him alright. That is his pattern. There is a pattern in his life. You see this as a pattern that is being highlighted at least in these two chapters.

And so the immediate question is: Is that your attitude? Is that our attitude? Do we see God’s good hand as His children in our lives regardless of what problems may face us, regardless of what situations that we are in, regardless of the thing that befalls us at that point of time, do we see God’s good hand upon our lives? Now can we say that God is for us, who can be against us? Like the hymn writer puts it: “I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me hath been made known, Nor why, unworthy, am I am, He claimed me for His own. But I know. But “I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.””.

Now he goes on to say: “I know not what of good or ill may be reserved for me, of weary ways or golden days, Before His face I see.”. Again “but I know”. So the hymn writer says I don’t know whether the situation is good for me or bad for me, but I know that I have a God who has committed to preserve me. And there is a God who does all things for my good, and there is a God who works all things for the good of those who love Him.

Now as Christians, that is the comfort you know, the sweet confidence that we can have, that we have a God who holds us, who does all things for our good. And so we can see God’s good hand just like Ezra saw God’s good hand upon every area of his life, upon all the problems that are in his life. God’s good hand is behind it. And we can say that because we are His children. But today if you are still strangers to God’s grace, if you still haven’t come to see the need for a Saviour, may I urge you to consider at least the first principle which is to first seek the Lord. First, seek the Lord.

Now the Bible says to “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near”. Now because there will come a time, there will come a second, there will come a minute when God will no longer be found even if you want to find Him. Now there will come a time when God will no longer be near, and by then that would be too late. So while there is still time, seek the Lord. Seek the Lord.

Come to Him in prayer, just like the tax collector in Luke 18 says: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”. Come to Him in prayer, and the promise is this. The promise is that God will always, always hear the prayer of a broken and contrite heart. God will always hear the prayer of a repentant heart, a sinner who’s poor in spirit, who recognizes his need, who is broken. And there’s only one way to be reconciled to God, and that is through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we thank You once again for Your Word. We recognize that we live in this fallen world where there are so many things that beset us, that each day we are faced with problems in this sinful world although we know that we have the greatest privilege which is redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we pray that each day as we go along our lives, You will help us to seek You.

Help us to come before You, to pray to You, to make wise decisions in whatever situations that we face. And then in all things, we will always honour You to put Your name above everything and to see how good You are to us as Your hand is over us. We pray that You will teach us each day to live, to trust You, to have faith, and to grow in our confidence in Your hand over us, for this we ask and pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.