FRIDAYS

I find myself in 'Friday pain' again!  I cannot glibly say 'TGIF' because all I know in this place is that if You are not in Friday Lord then heaven help us all, because that is the only place our help is going to come from.

Thursday AND Friday I am immersed in a pool of broken and pain-filled lives, sinking into Your depths in order that something of You would float out of me and find it's way to sooth the wounded and weary.

As I stare into the pain-filled heart of this nation, everything in me erupts in a silent cry for help...that You, the help of the helpless, would come and reach out Your hand and pour out of Your heart a soothing balm that heals and restores.

I listen to the mother who never had a functioning mother trying to be a mother!  I look at the motherless and fatherless adults of our land as they do their best to do what no-one ever took the time to show or teach them, hoping against hope that the lives of their children will be different, that their children will know a peace and security they have only glimpsed themselves.

In the midst of this, my heart screams and my eyes flow with tears for those who have forgotten how to cry, or cannot stop.  Lord, let my ears be Yours as they listen to those whose voices were never heard as they tell their stories.

'Part the heavens O Lord and come down" ... uphold the cause of the oppressed and give food to the hungry.  Set the prisoners free, and give sight to the blind, lift up those who are bowed down ... watch over the alien and sustain the fatherless and the widows, and frustrate the ways of the wicked." (Psalms 145 & 146)

I lay the burden down in Your great heart Lord.  In the deep heart of Your purpose and promise for this land, I stand silently before Your greatness and remind You of Your words to Your servant David .... "Because of the oppression of the weak, and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise" says the Lord. (Psalm 12)

Come Lord, arise in our hearts and in our land. Touch the head that is wounded and the heart that is afflicted.  From the sole of the foot to the top of the head let there be soundness - every wound, welt, and open sore, cleansed, bandaged and soothed with oil. (Isaiah 1)