PRAYERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT --- PART 4

Be our Joy and Hope, our Strength and Life, our Shield and Shepherd, our Portion forever. For happy are we if we continue in the love in which loved us; Holy are we when we love You unwaveringly. Therefore, You whose Name and essence is love, enkindle our hearts, enlighten our understandings, sanctify our wills and fill all the thoughts of our hearts; for Yeshua HaMashiach’s sake. (Joshua 24)

O You who are Love and who sees all the suffering, injustice and misery which reign in the world; look mercifully upon the poor, the oppressed and all who are heavy laden with labour and sorrow. Fill our hearts with deep compassion for those who suffer and hasten the coming of Your Kingdom of justice and truth. (Judges 3).

O Love unspeakable and full of glory, whose majesty is not to destroy, but to save, saves us from ourselves. Our past relentlessly pursues us. Days we thought dead live over again; deeds we deemed buried meet us on the way; be our defence, O YAHVEH. Fill up that which our lives have left behind. Undo that which we have done amiss. Repair the places we have wasted, bind the hearts we have wounded. Dry the eyes which we have flooded. Make the evil we have done work for well, so that we ourselves would not know it. Through HaMashiach our Adonai. (Judges 16).

Almighty YAHVEH, look with compassion on all who are living without You and on the multitudes who even in this land are scattered like sheep without a shepherd, or who in strange lands are far from the church of their fathers. Visit them with Your salvation. O heavenly Father, Adonai of the harvest, hear our prayers and sends forth workers into Your harvest. Fit and prepare them by Your grace for the work of their ministry. Give them the Spirit of power, love and of a sound mind. Strengthen them to endure hardness, and grant that both by their life and doctrine they may set forth Your glory and set forward the salvation of all people; through Yeshua HaMashiach our Adonai. (Ruth 2).

O Eternal YAHVEH, You have made me and sustained me; You have blessed me all the days of my life and have taken care of me through all variety of accidents. Nothing happens to me except that which is in Your will. O let me never accuse You foolishly, nor offend You by my impatience and haughty pride, nor weaken the hands of those who minister to my needs. Let me pass through the valley of tears and the valley of the shadow of death with safety and peace, with a meek spirit and a sense of Your divine mercy. Grant this, eternal YAHVEH, gracious Father, in the \\
ame of our ever blessed Saviour, Yeshua. (1 Samuel 1).

Blessed are You O Adonai Almighty YAHVEH, to whom our inmost thoughts are revealed: You know our needs much better than we ourselves can ask or imagine. Sovereign Adonai and ever-loving Redeemer, in the richness of Your mercy, give us pure hearts to call upon Your holy Name; lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil and order all things for our good. Because all glory, honour and praise are Yours by right, Father, Son and Ruach HaKodesh, now and for ever, to the ages of ages. (1 Samuel 7).

O Adonai Yeshua HaMashiach, Who is like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, You see Your weak creatures weary of labour, weary of pleasure, weary of hope deferred, weary of self. In Your abundant compassion and fellow feeling with us, and with Your unspeakable tenderness, bring us, we pray, to Your rest. (1 Samuel 21).

O YAHVEH, You Who are the Author of love and the Lover of pure peace and affection, let all who are terrified by fears, afflicted by poverty, harassed by tribulation, worn down by illness, be set free by Your indulgent tenderness, rose up by renewal of life and cherished by Your daily compassion. (1 Samuel 30)

Almighty YAHVEH, Father of mercies and giver of comfort: Deal graciously, we pray, with all who mourn; that, casting their care on You, they may know the consolation of Your love; through Yeshua HaMashiach our Adonai. (2 Samuel 1).

O blessed Adonai and Saviour, who has commanded us to love one another, grant us grace that, having received Your undeserved bounty, we may love everyone in You and for You. We ask Your compassion for all; but especially for the friends whom Your love has given to us. Love them, O Fountain of love and make them love You with all their heart, with all their mind and with all their soul, that they may speak and do only what is pleasing to You… . Do to them what is useful for them, according to Your will, that they would always and everywhere be ruled and protected by You, attaining everlasting life; and to You, with the Father and Ruach HaKodesh, be all honour and praise forever and ever. (2 Samuel 9).