We’ve become accustomed to rushing, not beholding. Are we better off for it? Join in with this prayer for the worship service at Westminster on July 26, 2026.
Let us pray:
Lord God forever-mighty,
who makes 1000 years seem short,
and the girth of 1000 armies seem weak,
we behold you.
Behold.
That’s a word we don’t use much anymore—behold.
Instead of beholding your grandeur,
we put you in the footnotes of our priorities.
Instead of just beholding your mercy,
we rush past, as if stepping over someone who needs help,
because we have more pressing things to do.
Instead of just beholding your trustworthiness,
we give you five seconds of thought,
as we rush and zag this way and that—
otherwise distracted by a world
that wants our attention while it steps on our hearts.
But no.
Today—right here, right now—we behold you.
Your grandeur.
Your mercy.
Your trustworthiness.
We hold them close in the tangle of our frailty—
while you cut through the ugliness with your beauty.
Forgive our sin—
when we ignore, look away, trivialize, manipulate, shrug,
in the face of all the things that matter most.
Bring us, yet again, to that glorious space of gratitude,
to that internal sunrise of clarity,
where we behold you—
again and again and again.
These things we pray,
like toddlers at the foot of a hero,
in the name of Jesus—
Saviour to sinners,
Teacher to students,
Friend to tired souls—
Amen.