09/02/2026
Mid-Week Devotion and Prayer-September 2, 2026
Lifting Us Up
Scripture-Isaiah 43:2-“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
So often, when we face struggles and challenges, we try to manage everything under our own power. Yet, we have all the help we need in the one who promises us, through Isaiah, that the rivers will not sweep over us and the flames will not set us ablaze. Rather than trust in that promise and turn to God in prayer before we feel swept away or burned up, we fight on.
The amazing thing about prayer is that it lifts us up, right where we are. We may not see immediate results, or at least not the results we desire. However, prayer always lifts us up. It is part of our call as Christians, to pray for one another; to lift one another up before God in petition and intercession. Yet, we are quick to remove someone from a prayer list when we think they have been on it for “too” long or received the answer.
Over and over, we acknowledge how good our God is. We share the stories of a few miraculous answers to prayer so often the stories begin to sound like fishing tales. However, if we sit back and are brutally honest, the answers to prayer come not in the miracles we embrace but in the little ways our lives change and transform slowly, one visible when we look back over our shoulder at where we once were.
This week our Bishop sent out a letter calling us as churches and congregations to lift one another up in prayer. Also, this week, one of contemporary Christian music’s current names released the videos of a newer song called “How Good God Is.” These two events, side by side, speak loudly of the need for prayer to sustain us and one another in Christian love and fellowship.
When we look back over our lives, we see where God carried us, to recall an old poem about “The Footprints in the Sand.” However, when we look back at our churches and congregations’ histories, we find the churches are strongest when they are faithful in praying for those within their congregation and their siblings across congregations.
Every one of us faces those points of breaking, individually and as communities of faith, the difference is where we turn. If we turn into our own strength and power, we fall. When we rely on God, and have the community of believers to lift us up in prayer, we find a strength that points us back to God. That is when we see how good God is and can proclaim the goodness of God to the world. Therefore, let us join together in lifting one another up in prayer. (See webpage shown below.)
Holy God, you are so good. I have sung this truth my entire life, teach me to live it through my faithful prayers for those near and for those whose ministries and lives I only know by name and not by experience. Make my prayers a source of strength and sustenance for my siblings, as they lift me up in prayer. Amen.
https://www.unyumc.org/post/from-bishop-burgos-widening-the-circle-of-prayer
Watch & share my lyric video for “How Good God Is” now! Listen to...
