A PRAYER

Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word.  Psalm 119:17

Lord, forgive me for just assuming that another day will be mine.  For years, I just expected that I would awaken as always; alive, healthy, and the world would be what it had always been.  I did not see that it is your mercy that keeps earth on its axis.  If it were just one degree off course in its rotations, I would be burned alive or frozen to death.

You made my body to work miraculously; muscles, a complex web of nerve endings, an endocrine system that is held together delicate balances of hormones.  Sight, touch, hearing, all are a product of your handiwork.  It takes something so little to shut one or all of them down.  To get up in the morning and experience all of them working together is a gracious gift, daily.

I think of all the times in my life when I accused you of not having a heart for me, of not being good.  Yet I recognize that you have dealt bountifully with me for the breadth of my lifetime.  Because of your generous heart, I have lived, I have survived the valleys of my life, I have sought You, and I have a heart that longs to know You and keep Your Word.

I echo David’s prayer today, Lord.  Deal bountifully with me. I know the One from whom my very breath comes. I don’t take it for granted.  Since You have given me life, my life is yours.

Amen