A prayer for a full life, written by Greg Lorry and read by Kelly Givens.

I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God

while I have my being. Psalm 146 verse 2.

Jesus Christ was, according to the Bible, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He knows and understands the pain and hurt deep inside your soul when you have lost

someone you love. John 1135 tells us Jesus wept. Tears rolled down his cheeks, tears of sympathy for Mary and Martha,

for all the sorrow that is caused by sin and death. And in that sense, Jesus has wept with us as well.

Death was never God's plan in the beginning,

but now because of the entrance of sin into the human race all of us will die one day

Some will live longer than others, but we all will die and we think the greatest tragedy is when someone dies young.

While this is an extreme tragedy I don't think it is the ultimate tragedy.

I think the ultimate tragedy is when a life has been lived to its entire

length and has been entirely wasted and squandered on sin. I think of the words of Jim Elliot who was a modern day martyr of the faith put to death

as he tried to bring the gospel to a tribe in Ecuador known at the time as the Aquas.

Jim was lanced through with a spear, and wrapped around that spear was one of the gospel

tracks he and a missionary pilot, Nate Saint, had dropped over their village from the air.

In his journal, Jim Elliot had written,

I seek not a long life, but a full one like yours, Lord Jesus.

We think that length of life is the ultimate goal.

And yes, it is good to live long.

But what is more important is to live right, to do what is right before God.

What is more important is to live a life that is pleasing to him.

Let's pray.

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