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The topic was interesting.
The words were well chosen.
The timing was perfect.
Your class was going to love your speech tomorrow. But first you had to try it out on your family.
Well you nailed that, right?
Actually they told you your eye contact wasn’t very good.
You talked too quietly or too quickly.
We couldn’t keep up with what you were saying.

All that negative feedback made you second guess yourself. Do you second guess yourself when you speak to God in prayer? We know he wants us to pray to him. His Son has given us a perfect prayer to use. We know it well, but we also know that our thoughts and words are far from perfect.

Sometimes we even see the cross we bear as God’s feedback, his obvious displeasure, on our imperfect prayers. If only my prayers were better my life would be better. Listen to what God tells you in His Word.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Romans 8:26)

The Holy Spirit understands our imperfect prayers and he sanctifies them. He helps us through the word and the sacraments by assuring us that our sins are forgiven. The Spirit removes our doubts and strengthens our faith.

The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray with confidence. Confidence in the Father who graciously hears our prayers and confidence in the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has brought us to the Father by his life and death.

When you arrive at the doctor’s office you know they’ll have the clipboard waiting. If you could just fill out this gigantic stack of papers that’d be great, thanks. Do you really read that stack? Initial here, sign there, check this, bring it back to the desk.

But soon you’re the one called back to the desk. I’m sorry but you left some things out. The lawyer who stood up to test Jesus had left some things out. His summary of a lot was correct, but Jesus said “then do it.”

Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37)

The priest and the Levite had left some things out too. They had not robbed the poor man but they left him to die on the side of the road just the same. We have left some things out as well. We can summarize the law: love God and love our neighbor. We have not loved God with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

God’s Word is clear: to leave anything out is to leave everything out. The Good Samaritan left nothing out and he explained to the innkeeper exactly how to take care of that poor man. The innkeeper didn’t have to call him back.

Here we see the extent of our Savior’s love. He has healed our wounds. He has paid the cost of our forgiveness with his life and death. And he will come back for us. Jesus has done all things for our salvation. His perfect obedience is ours by faith.

This good news gives us strength to “go and do likewise.”

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Things come undone.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky that morning, but that afternoon a tornado cut through town with surgical precision. As night fell, everyone got to sleep in their own beds on this block. But on that block everyone was picking up the pieces of their broken homes.

Things come undone.

God brings a family together. He blesses marriage and the raising of children. We leave those blessings behind to pursue happiness, sins that break our homes, and the hearts of those who love us.

Things come undone.

My body no longer obeys my mind’s commands and my mind isn’t what it used to be either. I’m aware of that decline. And I can do nothing to stop it.

Storms surge, and the earth shakes. Orphans cry and widows weep. Hands tremble and memories fade. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. But the mercies of God which are new every morning fill our hearts with confidence that cannot be shaken.

By water and the spirit, the Father has made us new creations in his Son who died and rose again to forgive us our sins By faith in Jesus the Father declares us to be his own children and heirs of an eternal home which nothing can destroy.

God is our refuge in every trouble. Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea though the waters there of roar and be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. (Psalm 46:1-3)

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