Ohana Prayer 225 – Ecclesiastes 7
8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.
9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.
12 Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.
13 Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?
14 When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.
25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.
27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered: “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
28 while I was still searching but not finding— I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.
29 This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.”
Master of All Things, Father in Heaven, thank you that every good gift and every perfect gift is from you, coming down from You, the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. You have blessed us with straight and smooth paths, taking us where You want us.
With reverence and awe we come to you before dawn. We get rid of all the filth and the evil that is so prevalent, corruption, pride, anxiety, and anger in our lives, and humbly accept the word You have planted in our hearts, for it has the power to save our souls.
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to the world. You did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil the promises in the scriptures. By dying on the cross, You redeemed us from our sins and bridged the gap between God and us.
We are given eternal life for believing in You. Thank you for revealing the Satan’s nefarious schemes to deceive us; he places many obstacles on the path of grace and hope You have set for us, which we mistakenly think that it is Your intention to make our journey difficult. We blame you for the global pandemic, the wide spread natural disasters, a great number of calamities caused by human, and our personal troubles and hardship.
Forgive us for our ignorance. As we transition through life, we have peaks and valleys, ups and downs, high points and low points, and we have overcome and conquered every one of them because of Your loving presence. You are our shepherd and You speak to us and guide us onto the right path.
Holy Spirit, thank you for opening up our spiritual eyes that we may see and consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what God has bent? All things that God has ordained cannot be changed because the Lord said: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.”
May You guide us step by step not to indulge in the flesh, not to focus on temporal things that we see, stay away from anger, evil, and every form of malice. Grant us wisdom and patience to act sensibly, to exert self- discipline, and to love people. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, trusting Him with everything. Let us live a godly life and let the light of Christ in our hearts shine brightly before men in such a way that they may see the good works that we do in His power and strength and give glory to Him, our Lord and God.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.