A Prayer by William Barclay link
1907-1978 link

O God, you are our refuge
When we are exhausted by life’s efforts;
When we are bewildered by life’s problems;
When we are wounded by life’s sorrows:
We come for refuge to you.
O God, you are our strength.

When our tasks are beyond our powers;
When our temptations are too strong for us;
When duty calls for more than we have to give to it:
We come for strength to you.

O God, it is from you that all goodness comes
It is from you that our ideals come;
It is from you that there comes to us the spur of high desire and the restraint of conscience.
It is from you that there has come the strength to resist any temptation, and to do any good thing.

And now as we pray to you,
Help us to believe in your love,
so that we may be certain
that you will hear our prayer;

Help us to believe in your power,
so that we may be certain
that you are able to do for us
above all that we ask or think;

Help us to believe in your wisdom,
so that we may be certain
that you will answer,
not as our ignorance asks,
but as your perfect wisdom knows best.

All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

A Prayer of Confession link

I confess to You, Lord, what I am: I am not the person I like others to think I am;
I am afraid to admit even to myself what lies in the depths of my soul.

But I do not want to hide my true self from You.
I believe that You know me as I am, yet You love me.
Help me not to shrink from self-knowledge; teach me to respect myself for your sake;
give me the courage to put my trust in Your guidance and power.

I come with open hands and a receptive mind and heart today,
letting go of my fears, my need for control & my sin.
I trust you to know best. To keep my life in the light and bring it to completion as you see fit.

I trust you to shape me, see me, steer me, stir me, sustain me and sanctify me
as I seek to be available to do your will and be your child.
I pray this in the name of my Perfect Providing Father,
my Forgiving Savior, my Loving Lord and my Sanctifying Spirit,
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer (traditional) link

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.

Scripture Reading: Ruth 2:17-23 NIV

17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.[a] 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.

19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.[b]”

21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”

22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

 

Benediction link

Let us go forth into the world in peace and dedicated to Your service, O Lord.
Let us hold fast to that which is good, render to no person evil for evil,
strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the needy and the afflicted, and honor all people.
Let us love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of His Spirit.
And may God’s blessing be upon us and remain with us always.
Amen.