Merciful God,

It is so hard to trust in you sometimes. Our needs and our fears and our anxieties seem so immediate and so real. We worry about having enough money to last us through the month or through our retirement. We worry about what’s happening to our kids and our community and this country and this world that we live in. We worry about bombs and guns, we worry about our jobs and our schoolwork, and we worry about people that we love – and we wonder how we can go on in light of loved ones that we have lost.

God, it is so hard to trust you sometimes. Yet you tell us to cast our burdens on you, you tell us to lean not on our own understandings, you tell us to follow you, you tell us that you have overcome the world, you tell us that you are with us even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you tell us your yoke is easy, and you tell us that your burden is light.

God, it is so hard to trust you sometimes. But we are a people gathered together in this place because we believe that two thousand years ago you raised a crucified Jewish Rabbi up from the dead. So help us to know your resurrection New Life more intimately, help us to take your power and your grace and your perfect love more seriously than our need and our fear and our anxiety, and help us to lean more intently into your everlasting embrace.

In the name of Jesus Christ, and in the power of your Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.