What a privilege it is for us to gather together to know that no matter where we are,

no matter what happened yesterday, God listens to our prayers and God loves us.

And so it is with that confidence that we move forward here in our time of prayer.

You're listening to the Prayers of Rest podcast. I'm your host, Ashrida Chuchu. In this season, we are

resting in the promises of God. Today, specifically, we are praying through God's promise to

always be with us.

So take a deep breath and quiet your heart as we become aware of God's loving presence

around us and within us, this very moment. Today's reading comes from Matthew, Chapter 28, verse 20.

And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

So let's begin by reciting God's goodness, praising Him for who he is and for what he has done in our lives.

Oh God, you are the ever near God. You are the one who created this world and set it into motion and stayed with it.

You were not absent.

You did not abandon the work of your hands.

Your presence continued to dwell with your people through your glory.

And I think of the Israelites, even before that, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and

you God would walk with them in the morning when the dew was still on the leaves, there you'd walk and talk.

I can't even picture that type of face-to-face closeness to you.

And yet, the culminating moment of your presence with us is Emmanuel, God with us.

I praise you, God, for the gift of your presence.

So in the next few moments, thank God for the good gift of His presence with you. Now we move to a time to express our neediness.

This is a time to confess our need for God's forgiveness to receive his cleansing of all our sin and the relief of the

burdens that we bring to Him. Oh God, we confess that so often even though many of us have grown up with this great promise of your presence, we forget.

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