[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S5507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The guest Chaplain, Dr. Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, 
Washington, DC, offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray: Lord God, as we begin the official business of the day 
in this place, we praise You for Your sustaining presence. We remember 
facing situations that we were certain we could not face, or having to 
face them, could not survive. Yet, by Your providence, we did. And so 
we begin this new day by praising You for Your sustaining presence, 
even in apparently hopeless situations.
  We praise You, too, for Your sovereign reminder of Yourself, even 
through pain and disaster. We confess, Lord, that for all of our words 
about problems in our society we are too often quietly and wrongly 
proud of the prosperity of this Nation, feeling that we ourselves are 
sufficient explanations for all the good we see and know. So, Lord God, 
we praise You and thank You that You use the bounds of our abilities 
and troubles to remind us of the limits of our power. Do not leave us, 
Lord, in false beliefs about ourselves, and our roles here, or about 
You, and Your rightful claims on us.
  When we are frustrated by injustices we cannot address, remind us, 
Lord, of the brevity of this life. And remind us of Your coming 
judgment: of its reality, its certainty, its inevitability, its 
finality.
  When we are tempted to be selfish or indifferent to our work, remind 
us of the responsibility You have entrusted to us: to listen, to learn, 
to reflect, to pray, to legislate, to obey.
  When we are tempted to pride in what we have done--when we see a bill 
passed, a program begun or ended, an initiative completed--and we feel 
something of the power of our office, remind us of our complete and 
utter dependence on You.
  For Your glory, O Lord, restore this land. We know that we are not 
here finally to fulfill our own desires, or even the desires of our 
constituents. We know that we are put here to serve You. So, we pray 
that You would use us--use the business done in this place today, use 
our Government, use our Nation to display Your character, Your glory 
throughout all Your creation. We ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 
Amen.

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