In my Bible, under Psalm 51, there is a subtitle: “Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”

If you think about his life—if anyone would know about the need for cleansing and forgiveness, David would. He was a lowly shepherd, and God raised him up to be the most beloved king Israel ever had. At the height of his popularity and success, he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then had her husband Uriah killed. David tried to cover it up—to hide it. But he learned pretty quickly—as we all do—that our sins have a way of catching up to us.

Psalm 51 is David’s prayer. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love… Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin… Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew a right spirit within me.”

It is a beautiful prayer, and people of faith have been praying it for thousands of years.

It’s interesting that a lot of the Psalms are prayers for people who are in trouble and asking for help—and many of them say, “Change my situation, God, so that I may praise you.” I’m in trouble. Or, “God, change the people around me, change what they are doing.” But this Psalm doesn’t say, “Change my situation,” or, “Change other people.” No. David prays, “Change me… Change me.”

When God says that David is a man after his own heart, I have to believe this is part of it. He trusts God enough to admit when he’s wrong—he doesn’t blame other people, he doesn’t blame his situation. No. He prays, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you have I sinned.”

There is something freeing about being able to come clean, to open our hearts and our lives before God. It’s often the first step toward healing in relationships. And it is the first step toward spiritual growth.

Let us pray. Gracious God, we are not perfect. We’ve made mistakes. We don’t have it all together. And so we need you. We need you to help us let go and start over differently. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your forgiveness. We thank you for your love; through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today’s message was written by Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

You know, when trouble comes into our lives or when tragedy strikes, we ask, “Where is God?” And the answer is – God is in the same place he was when his son was on the cross. God does not abandon us; God is with us every step of the way. He is with us even closer than our hands and feet. And as we keep moving forward, living one day at a time, trusting in God, and doing the best we can, he moves with us; he brings us through the valley. In the fiftieth chapter of Genesis, this is what Joseph referred to when he said to his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20) What had happened was bad, but God brought good out of those terrible events. That is the good news of our faith. God is with us, and nothing, not even death, can separate us from Him. “Lo, I am with you always,” – this is God’s most significant promise, and when we claim that promise, it changes our lives. Now make this day a masterpiece for you are blessed to be a blessing to others. 

Let us pray: God of all time, come into our lives and make us whole. As you entered time in Jesus the Christ, be born in us today and lead us to the light of your love. Be with all those in need of warmth and life and hope. Be with those who grieve. Be with those who are sick. Be with those who are afraid, that they may find themselves held in your strong arms. Lead us to your light, for we pray in the name of the light of the world, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

I recently heard about a business executive who became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening, he would eat his dinner in silence. His wife and five-year-old daughter felt completely shut out. 

After several nights of this, one evening his daughter went into the den where he was staring at his phone. She took her little hand and pushed the phone down. Then she jumped into her father’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, and hugged him strongly. The father said abruptly, “Honey, you are hugging me to death!” But then he suddenly realized what was actually going on, and he thought to himself, “No. You are not hugging me to death. You are hugging me to life…”

Touch is an incredibly important aspect of human life.  

The Menninger Institute in Topeka, Kansas, once studied a group of babies who didn’t cry. These babies had been in abusive situations. Their parents let them cry for hours on end and never responded. Eventually, the babies quit crying. It is almost as if they had learned that it was not worth even making an effort.

So the Menninger Institute tried an experiment. They got some folks from a nearby retirement center to come in daily to hold these babies and rock them. The objective was to get these babies to start crying again. And it worked. The physical touch made all the difference.

Let us pray: Loving God, we thank you today for friends and family, and for the people you bring into our lives who make our lives richer. Help us never fail to find ways to show our love – not only with our words but also with our actions. Amen. 

Today’s message was written by Roger Kunkle, founder of Dial Hope.

It is meaningful to me that the three churches where I served as pastor were all located near water. In Duluth, Minnesota, the church was several blocks from Lake Superior. In Chicago, the church was one block from the Des Plaines River. And In Sarasota, Florida, I was near the Gulf of Mexico.

If you’ve ever visited Sarasota, you know that some of the world’s most beautiful beaches are in this area. Sometimes when I walk on the beach, I am overwhelmed by how big the ocean is and how little I am. Then I remember that the Bible says in Psalm 95:4-5, “In God’s hands are the depths of the earth… The sea is his for he made it.”

There is one who is bigger than even the ocean. There is a God who is not helpless before it. Realizing that, my faith is strengthened, and I feel serene and unafraid. Living by water, by the ocean, there comes to me a better understanding of life, because the two are so much alike. Life itself has a vastness that is beyond the reach of our sight. But we can say with the Psalmist, “I trust in you, O Lord… My times are in your hands.” (Psalm 31:14,15)

We believe nothing can happen in our lives that God cannot handle. And that gives us confidence, faith, and hope as we think of tomorrow. 

There are many parallels between life and the ocean. We experience times of low tide and high tide, and there is no way to stop those tides. If we realize that we will experience low tides of spirit, then our moments of discouragement lose much of their terror. The tide will come in. Yes, the tide may go out, but just as surely, it comes back.

There are times when we are anxious to accomplish something, but there are times when we must “wait for the tide.” But in the waiting, we can be certain the tide will rise. And because of that certainty, we have faith and hope. Say to yourself, “My times are in God’s hands,” and you will gain serenity and quietness, and trust. My times are in God’s hands.

Let us pray: Loving God, whatever difficulty we are facing, remind us that the tide will come in. May your presence, your peace, and your comfort flow over us like healing waters, baptizing us in your love, mingling your balm with our tears to create living waters for tomorrow. All of these things we pray in the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who came among us as one of us. Amen.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” 

It strikes me that Jesus knew that we would hunger and thirst for more than food and water. There is a sense in which we are created with this longing innately in us. Saint Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” 

But I do have to wonder if we don’t feel this more acutely now than ever at this stage in history, in these times in which we are so deeply polarized, when there is an epidemic of loneliness, and when there is a real crisis of mental health.

These days, when we gather, we are gathering more and more with like-minded thinkers. Online, the algorithms show us news and stories that only reinforce exactly what we already believe. And so we’ve become increasingly divided from each other. We’re taught to fear one another… Not to trust one another. I imagine most of us feel the loss very deeply… And, while our technology has been a blessing on many levels, so often as individuals, we’re totally distracted…  

As this world becomes increasingly secular, we find ourselves longing for healing and wholeness. We are longing for connection. We are longing for a sense of the sacred. 

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Now, if we were to skip ahead to the end of the section in John’s Gospel, we find that a number of disciples have walked away from Jesus. They find his teaching is too hard. And Jesus asks the twelve – his closest followers whether they too wanted to part ways. And Peter responds, “Lord, to whom can we go?”

In other words, “Lord, the alternatives are not good.” Where else is there to look? If Jesus is not God’s Word to a hurting world, please, anyone, give us a more credible word. Look around. Consider the places we turn to for ultimate meaning and hope. Test the alternative answers to the world’s spiritual hunger…. Is it technology? Is it social media? Is it politics? Is it the Republican party… or the Democratic party? Is it a bigger house, more money, or a more successful career?

Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of deep, lasting Life…”   

Let us pray: We confess, O God, that sometimes we put our trust in Christ, but other times, we trust other things, other people. Sometimes we turn to him, and sometimes we fail to turn to him. Sometimes we trust in his ways, but sometimes we trust only our own way… Help us to turn back to you, to trust you. For it is You, in Christ, who has the words to deep and abundant life. Amen.