A prayer of understanding

Lily Cathcart September 16, 2025 3 2

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Exodus 32: 7-14 (NIVUK)

7 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”’ 9 The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’

11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.”’ 14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

God you know us far better than we know ourselves. Sometimes we think we are so wise, but the Bible is full of men who think they know the answers only to find they are not nearly ready to face the challenge. We have not changed that much since then.

Teach us please God, as you have done on mountains and by lakeshores. Give us the awakening, the eye opening conversations that we need. Tell us the stories which will touch our hearts and find in them a seed of hope, love and joy which we did not even realise you had begun to plant.

God I long to live in a world where each of us grows from this seed you have planted within us. I wish I could see the beautiful world of people we could become. Help us to nourish our hearts and grow them in your wisdom, in your stories, and in you.

Amen