19B*
A Call to Worship
Lent 1B 2012
Psalm 25: 1-10

O Lord our God, we gather to worship you, to lift up
our souls to the One whom we trust and revere.
Even though our hearts are heavy with regrets—
Lord, in confidence and hope we come to you.


O God, we gather to learn more about your ways—
so that we can walk more faithfully on your paths.
Lord, we trust in your kind faithfulness, and know
that you gift us with your endless love and compassion.


O God, you are the full expression of goodness!
You are the total manifestation of love and mercy!
We gather to worship the God who walks beside us,
who guides and blesses on our daily faith journey. Amen.



Prayers of Lament and Petition
Lent 1B 2012
Psalm 25: 1-10

O Lord our God, in penitence we come to worship
you this day, seeking your blessing and mercy.
We lift up our souls to your forgiving goodness,
because in the past, you have always blessed and
renewed us, when we came seeking forgiveness.

It is with real sorrow in our hearts that we need to
ask you to teach us again your ways of truth. We
know we should always remember what is your truth,
what are your ways of life and loving; but we ask
again for you to guide and direct the path of our lives.

O God, we ask that you do not hold our youthful
mistakes against us, as we now know how foolish we
were in those long-ago days. Yet, even though we
are now older, we still make foolish mistakes. We
offer our worship and honour to you, you have been
so patient with us, and your loving generosity is beyond
our understanding, and it is beyond what we deserve.

Gracious God, we want to try to understand, and to live
according to your precepts; to live in your ways; with your
truth, justice and love as our signposts in life. We humbly
ask that you help by growing and nurturing our spiritual faith. Amen.


Set out below is a Spanish translation of the above Prayers of Lament
and Petition. This translation was provided by Pastor Xergio Ly Chacin
who is pastor of a small Baptist, Spanish speaking congregation in Fort Worth,
Texas, USA. To quote from Pastor Xergio's message...

"As I prepare to preach on Sunday from Psalm 25 I came to your site from the
Text this Week website. I was particularly touched by the way you worked the
Psalm into a prayer. I went ahead and translated into Spanish in case I use it
during the preaching time. For whatever it might be worth to you, I am sending
you the translation right below. May the Lord continue blessing you and thanks
for sharing your beautiful work."



Oh Señor nuestro Dios, en penitencia venimos a adorarte
este día, buscando tu bendición y misericordia.
Levantamos nuestras almas a tu bondad perdonadora,
porque en el pasado, tu siempre nos has bendecido y
renovado, cuando venimos buscando perdón.

Es con verdadera congoja en nuestros corazones que necesitamos
pedirte que nos enseñes de nuevo tus sendas de verdad.
Sabemos que debemos recordar siempre cuál es tu verdad,
cuáles son tus sendas de vida y amor; pero pedimos
de nuevo que nos guíes y dirijas el sendero de nuestras vidas.

Oh Dios, te pedimos que no tengas nuestros errores juveniles
en contra nuestra, ya que sabemos cuán necios éramos
en esos días pasados. Aún así, aunque ya estamos
mayores, todavía cometemos errores necios. Te
ofrecemos nuestra adoración y honor a ti, tú has sido
tan paciente con nosotros, y tú amorosa generosidad está más allá
nuestro entendimiento, y está más allá de lo que merecemos.

Dios de gracia, queremos tratar de entender, y vivir
de acuerdo con tus preceptos; vivir en tus sendas; con tu
verdad, justicia y amor como postes en nuestras vidas. Humildemente te
pedimos que nos ayudes incrementando y nutriendo nuestra fe spiritual. Amén.



A Personal Meditation
Lent 1B 2012
Psalm 25: 1-10

I have failed again O God! This makes me feel
so foolish! I remember how, when I was young,
I did many things that I now regret, but you would
think I would grow out of such stupidity! But have I?
No! I think I am just as foolish now as I was so
many years ago – and it is all to do with my pride.

Creative pause: I have never learned from my mistakes!


I have trusted you all my life, even though I have not
understood the generosity of your love; nor the real
depths of your mercy – and now I am counting on
that love and mercy to wipe clean my list of mistakes.
And yes – I must be honest, my very long list of sin!

Creative pause: I am counting on God’s forgiving love.


I am comforted by the personal knowledge I have of
God’s forgiving ways; of God’s willingness to show me
once again, the better way to live; and to guide me
towards a better path in life to follow. O God, in humility,
I come again even though I am not normally a humble
person - in fact I am rather a proud and arrogant person!
But when I bow before the wonders of my God, I have
and am nothing of value before such merciful love.

Creative pause: I am as nothing before God’s love, yet that love helps me.


How wonderful is my God! How generous! How very
patient is my God! I am in awe of the guiding love God
has for me; and that love gives me the courage and the
confidence to go on in life. I am trying to follow in God’s
ways; to keep giving honour and praise to my God; and
to trust in God’s covenant relationship with me and all
other struggling followers on God’s way of life. O God, I lift
up all that I was, all that I am, and all that I will be - in worship.

Creative pause: My God is always to be loved and trusted.



Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and Meditations are from
‘The New Revised Standard Version’ Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

*The additional weekly numbering is from the Revised COCU Indexing Scheme
COCU = ('Consultation on Church Union'); as it offers an easy sequential numbering
for the Revised Common Lectionary for the Church Calendar.

If any part of these Prayers and/or Meditations is used in shared worship, please provide
the following acknowledgement:
© 2012 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: lent1b_2012.pdf