Lord, the future scares us. We see immorality in the land. We see men in leadership who boldly ignore Thy laws. We expect a crisis. We may not get what we deserve, but we know what we deserve. Yet, Lord, You have made promises to us about the future. All we have need of will be provided until us. We worry ourselves ill wondering what will happen in the next year, or the next two years. We worry about who will be elected President of the United States in a few years. The dollar will collapse. Islam is growing and there may be wars in America when our grandchildren become adults. Yet, Lord, we know that you control the future from the rise and fall of nations to the loss of a penny. You know the very number of the hairs on our heads. Why should we be afraid? Whom shall we fear? For the Lord is on our side. We have a great reason to rejoice.

Lord, we know sickness and we know trouble. There is trouble in the family. There is much that remains undone. There are young men without wives and young women without husbands. There are young couples who want children. There are children who worry us. They often fall into sin. We blame ourselves. They have flaws in their character. We blame ourselves. Yet, there are the covenant promises of God. You have promised to be not only our God, but a God unto our children. We have the hope of those promises. We have great reason to rejoice

Lord, sometimes old friends must depart. Our loved ones depart this world. Our good neighbor moves away. Our best friend becomes distant. We can be very lonely. We can even feel betrayed. Some do not keep their promises. Some simply forget about us. Yea, Lord, we have a friend in Jesus. All our griefs and sorrows He will bear. He will never leave us or forsake us. When our friends find new friends, even when our brothers and sisters leave our Church, Jesus is always there. We have much reason to rejoice.

Lord, we often fall down. We say the wrong things and hurt others. We fail to do the right things and hurt the people we love. When we compare ourselves with others, we often come up short. We did not reach our goal. Life was supposed to give us so much and we had to learn to live with much less. We have fallen on our faces. We are embarrassed. If our failures and sins were made public, we would live in shame. The pride of youth sometimes turns into the sadness of failure. The dreams of a man can easily drift away like a leaves driven by a strong wind. We can easily live in regret, thinking that all would have been well if we had only been wiser and smarter. Yea, Lord, we have the comfort of knowing that You even use our failures and our falls to teach us humility. You use even our sinfulness and our sins to drive us unto Thee. Even a man’s failure and sin has a purpose in the plan of God. They were useful to bring us where we are today - people living by faith.

Lord, we like our time alone, but we confess that we need community. We need others to encourage us and to uphold us. We don’t need the proud to beat us down. We need others like us to hold us up. We need to be reminded that it is not those who are well that need a physician, but those who are sick. The Church is a hospital of those who have recovered from addictions and depression. We have found Christ, yet we still are bothered by our past. We need to fellowship with those like unto us. We need the fellowship of the saints. This we have and for this reason we rejoice.