PKLM Sermons

January 11, 2026 Mark Turman - The Faith God's Dreaming Up

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Mark Turman - The Faith God's Dreaming Up

00:00 Introduction and New Year Greetings
00:25 Upcoming Lent and Devotional Resources
02:09 Audience Poll on Dreaming
03:34 Scientific Insights on Dreams
06:22 Biblical Perspective on Faith
09:19 Joseph's Divine Dreams
12:02 Joseph's First Dream: Accepting Mary
20:39 Joseph's Second Dream: Fleeing to Egypt
27:49 Joseph's Third Dream: Returning to Israel
32:19 Joseph's Fourth Dream: Settling in Nazareth
38:33 Conclusion and Prayer

[00:00:00] Introduction and New Year Greetings

Thank you. You may be seated. Happy New Year everybody. Happy New Year. So hope your season of holiday celebration was great and uh, we've been grateful so far to have a mild winner. Don't know if that'll change. Could change by Tuesday, but we're grateful to have it so far. Not to rush you past Christmas in New Year's.

I think you can stay, you know, I like saying Happy New Year, at least till the end of January. 

[00:00:25] Upcoming Lent and Devotional Resources

Not to rush you past the holidays, but we are about five weeks away from the beginning of the celebration of what is known as Lent. Some of you probably grew up in traditions of Christian faith. That practice lent.

Um, in my family grew up in a Roman Catholic family for the first 10 years of my life. My older siblings have all kinds of stories to share about what my parents led our family to do during lent. Most of it, they don't like most of it, they mock these days. Um, but it is a wonderful Christian tradition that is at.

1700 years old. So Lent will begin on Ash Wednesday, which is February the 18th. And Dennison Ministries, Dr. Ryan, Dennis has prepared a devotional. That you might want to pick up, we'll make 'em available on the cart at the back for free. These are daily devotionals from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Now, you don't have to use it in that calendar window.

You can use it anytime, but the book is based on the commands of Jesus. The first one being follow me. Okay. So if you want a copy of this, there'll be at the book table on the way back. Pick one out, start on Ash Wednesday. Start on whenever you want. Take you about five minutes a day to read Ryan's devotionals.

And I think you will be greatly blessed. If you wanna know more about Denison Ministries and resources that we have available, uh, including a new newsletter that Ryan started this week called the Focus. Find that this little card at the back by the coffee pot or the book table takes you to everything that Denison Ministries does.

Okay? And, uh, would love for you to check that out and get resources that might be helpful to you as you begin a new year. 

[00:02:09] Audience Poll on Dreaming

All right, let's start with a poll question. You're gonna be my survey audience. Okay? You can respond to this question with three possible responses, never some or often. Never some, or often.

The question is, do you dream, not dream in the sense of New Year's resolution, like I'm hoping that by the end of this year I'll be at this or that place with my weight or my finances or not, not that kind of dreaming. I hope you, Dr. Do that kind of dream. I'm talking about the kind of dreaming that happens when you put your head on the pillow.

All right, so how many of you would say I dream? Never. Wow. I got one up here at the front. I don't know what that means, Cindy, but it means something. How many of you would say you dream some? All right. How many of you would say that you dream often? Wow. How many of you had a dream last night? Whether you remember it or not.

Okay. Okay. Good deal. Couple follow up questions. Do, would you say yes or no? Raise your hand if you say yes to this. My dreams when I dream are very vivid. Wow. Okay. This is a good, good group for the, for today. 

[00:03:34] Scientific Insights on Dreams

I have been doing some studying this last week of the study of ology. Oh, neurology is the study, the scientific study of dreams.

Do you know that, um, when you dream, your brain is actually more active than when you are wide awake? So that's why your dreams might be vivid. Do you know, I've lived most of my life by the theory that that myth, that that our dreams are like instantaneous and like you get this big scene in a flash and it only takes a few seconds.

That's actually not true according to science that things like walking and counting in your dreams take as long as they do when you are awake. Which may be why you're exhausted when you wake up from some of your dreams. All right? Do you know that when we are dreaming, you've had those dreams, right?

Where somebody is chasing you or something is about to attack you? Uh, something like that. Do you know that that is your psyche practicing your flight or fight responses? Your brain is putting you into scenarios that could be dangerous to you, and it's practicing whether or not you should run away or stand your ground.

Do you know that when you see somebody in your dream and you keep waking up wondering who the heck was that? It could be any person that you have ever laid eyes on in your entire life. It could be somebody you know well, could be somebody that you saw at the coffee shop yesterday. Could be somebody that you saw in a park or an airport or a school 30 years ago.

Because your brain and mind have the ability to take snapshots of human faces and archive them for. So when your brain is putting together dream scenarios and it picks brain, face, or picks faces. Scientists tell us as far as they can tell. Now your brain and mind do not. It does not have the ability to invent a face like AI does.

It only takes the faces that it's seen somewhere to create the story. One last interesting fact about dreams. When you study rats and their brains, they kind of mimic in some ways our brains and when, when they dream, rats do dream. When they dream, guess what they dream about? They dream about the maze and they also dream about capturing the cheese.

So they like us, are living in that wonderful rat race that we can't get out of. 

[00:06:22] Biblical Perspective on Faith

You know, I think that God dreams as well, and I think what he mostly dreams about is you and I trusting him in everything. The Bible is a book about faith. It's about trust. The word faith is used in the Bible. 575 times 161 of those times are in the Psalms.

17 are in Matthew 18, are in Luke 38. Calls to faith and descriptions of faith are found in the book of Romans 36 of them in the book of Hebrews. Jesus talked a lot about faith. Challenge the disciples often. Oh, you of little faith. What did he say to Peter when Peter started looking at the waves and the wind and started to go down in the water?

Why did you not have faith when they're out on the sea of Galilee, that lake that Jesus loved to hang out in? Why? When they're wa going across the water and the waves are big and the winds are high and Jesus is asleep, they wake him up. Say, you're gonna let us die. He says, why? Didn't you trust me? If you wanted to have a good goal, a good dream for this year, I think it might be found in Matthew eight 10.

There's only one time in the Bible that I know of that the scriptures tell us that Jesus actually was amazed at something, and it happens in a very unlikely story in Matthew eight. It is a story of a Roman centurion, the commander of a hundred men, and Jesus encounters this guy. He comes to Jesus and says, I have a wonderful young servant who is sick.

Would you help me? Would you come and heal this wonderful young servant of mine? And Jesus says, yeah, sure. I'll come. And he says, oh, wait a minute. You don't have to come to my house if you really are who you say you are. You really have the power and authority that you say that you have as God say the word from right here, and my servant way over there, blocks or miles away, we're not sure they will get well.

Jesus says of this Roman centurion right there in the middle of Israel, he says, I have never seen faith like this. Not in awe of Israel. It says of Jesus. He was amazed at this centurion. That is a prayer and a goal that I have. I ask God regularly, God give me the ability, the gift, to trust you in a way that will amaze you, that will bring you joy, that will fulfill your dreams for what my faith should look like.

[00:09:19] Joseph's Divine Dreams

There's a lot of dreamers in the Bible. A lot of them. Matter of fact, you'll find two of the biggest dreamers, one in the Old Testament, one in the new, and they have the same name. Their name is Joseph. Joseph in the Old Testament book of Genesis, and also Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. I hope you'll pardon me.

I'm gonna just refer to him as Joe. Okay, and I'm not gonna pick the Old Testament Joseph. This time I'm going with Jesus's earthly father Joe. He received four Divine Dreams. That made all the difference in his life. You may remember them, you may be familiar to them. They may be brand new to you, but they have stuck in my brain and in my soul for the last month or so through the Christmas season.

Uh, Joseph often gets overlooked in the great telling of the story of Christmas, but it is a story and a testimony of how God wants us to learn and grow to trust him in everything. That God wants to guide us in such a consistent and caring way that we learn the heart that he has for us as his, uh, as his children.

Can I give you a quote from Tim Keller to choose on Chew On? Had not heard this quote until Dr. Dennison put it in his daily article a few days ago. Tim Keller said this, you and I are so depraved. We are so sinful. Jesus had to die for us, but at the same time, we are so loved. He was eager to do it. I would challenge you to ponder that thought.

Often, we are so sinful, so depraved, so selfish that the only hope that we have is that Jesus would die for us as a sacrifice. And we are so loved, so cared for so much the apple of God's eye that he was eager to do it on our behalf. Joe learned that like all of us need to learn that, but he learned it in a unique way.

He learned it through the coming of Jesus as a baby and his role as an earthly provider, protector, and father. And he learned it as God brought him dreams. The first one of these I think will be very familiar to you. 

[00:12:02] Joseph's First Dream: Accepting Mary

It's kind of the under telling of the Christmas story from Joseph's perspective in Matthew one, Matthew one 18.

The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way. After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered. I want you to underline the word discovered in your mind right here. It was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a. Dream. Dream. Thank you. Come on folks. In a dream. Saying Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. See, the virgin will become pregnant, will give birth to a son and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. Joseph woke up, he, when Joseph woke up, he did what the Lord's angel had commanded him. He married her, but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to his son, and he named him what?

Jesus. Jesus. Through a dream, through a dream in a moment. That had to have been enormously disappointing and confusing. Let me ask you for a moment to put your holy imagination on, as Dr. Gregory said to the chapel a few weeks ago, would you put your holy imagination on for just a moment and think about that incredible statement that it was discovered that Mary was pregnant.

There's a lot in that word. It's pretty pregnant all on its own. Trying to think in your mind what this must have been like for this young Jewish man starting off his life. From the time that my granddaughter now seven years old, Abigail was born before she was even six months old. We were talking to other families that we knew who were having Grand Boys, and we were talking about, well, maybe we should start arranging a marriage right now.

We don't know if this was arranged in their experience, but we know that Joseph and Mary grew up in this tiny little village called Nazareth, and the opportunities for who you might fall in love with or have an arranged marriage with or anything very limited possibilities. So can you imagine that from their earliest days as children, that the parents of Joseph and the parents of Mary were thinking, Hey, maybe this could be a match.

Maybe these two might get along. And then as they turned eight and 10, 12, maybe 14, maybe their parents, maybe the two of them were like, Hey, I, you know, mom suggested this to me, this might work. And they started to connect. Until finally they were engaged, they were betrothed, which was much deeper than our experience of that.

It was like being married already. You were completely committed. You were way beyond dating exclusively. You were absolutely to think of yourself as already married, as the planning for the great celebration of coming together as husband and wife were being planned, and in the midst of all of that, 

Mary turns up pregnant.

How do you think it might've played out when it says that Mary was discovered to be pregnant? What do you think that means? Do you think Mary had to take a really deep breath and have a one-on-one conversation with Joseph? Did her mother noticed that her belly was starting to swell? Did Joseph notice it?

Did somebody else in the village notice it? Don't you have some curiosity? I hope you do that when you get to heaven. Some of these lines will get colored in with the details of how all of this happened, but what we know is in the understated way that Matthew describes it, is that Joseph obviously is broken.

He's confused, he's disappointed, and he reacts the way any of us would've reacted. No matter what she may have said to him in that initial conversation. He's like, Mary, I can't go there with you. We have to end this. We, I'm gonna be kind and I'm gonna be as gentle as I can. We're gonna do this quietly. To protect.

Well, I don't know about protecting you, but we're gonna protect your mom and dad. We're gonna protect my mom and dad. We're, we're gonna do this as gently and as quietly as we possibly can. Can you please see these scenarios playing out? And then, God, God steps in with a dream. A dream so vivid, so profound, so clear.

In Joseph's confusion and disappointment and brokenness so profound that as soon as he wakes up, he has no question about what he is being guided by the Lord God to do. And the Christmas story, God continues. I wonder in this group gathered here this morning, what confusion did you carry into this room?

What disappointments over the last few months or the last year of 2025 are still unresolved for you? We've all lived long enough just about everybody in here to know that life has a lot of disappointments. I remember when I was a young Christian, 1980, Judy and I went to youth camp. That was the second place that we courted.

The first place that we courted was my senior prom. The second place we courted was at youth camp with our church. The third place that we courted was at the lake called Lake Tyler. When we got there, I was having my very first experience with church camp, and I heard the story of Steve Bartowski. Raise your hand if you remember the name, Steve Bartowski.

He played college football in California, was a two time all American, got drafted, became the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons for a decade. Played against guys like Roger Staubach and Danny White. That's when the Cowboys actually had a team. Um. That's who Steve Burkowski was. When Steve Burkowski got to Atlanta about four years into his professional career, he ran into the story of Jesus through a guy that Judy and I got to know as teenagers named Dan Dahan.

They would eventually tell the story of how Steve Bartkowski came to faith. And how he was discipled in spiritual growth through Dan de Ha. They would eventually write a book together called Intercepted by Christ. One of those chapters is entitled In that book by Steve Bartkowski. Your disappointments are God's appointments.

And that's exactly what it was for Joseph when he was confused, when he was broken, when he was hopeless. God stepped in and guided him in the appointment that he had for his part in the Christmas story and the purposes of God. I don't know what disappointments may come in front of us or in front of you this year, and I don't know if God will give you a dream to help you through it, but he will be there and he wants to guide you into deeper trust and into his purposes The second dream.

[00:20:39] Joseph's Second Dream: Fleeing to Egypt

A dream of protection. Protection that Joe didn't even know that he needed. Some of you have met my friend Paul, who's come out to the chapel with me a few times. Paul Cobb. Paul Cobb has, uh, a certain reputation at our church in McKinney Crosspoint Church. Uh, it's a very colorful reputation. Judy could give you her take on that as well.

One of the things that Paul is known for is the catchphrases that are always in his prayers when asked to lead a group or the congregation on a Sunday morning. Matter of fact, we've become so accustomed to what Paul is going to say in his prayers that we make fun of him because almost always, without question, without fail, whenever Paul leads prayer, he always prays.

Partly, God, would you grant us your hedge of protection? Binds Satan and blesses all that we do. He says it almost every single time. We can say it for him when he's praying, but it's not really something to joke about. The idea of God's protection, a hedge of protection actually comes from the experience of job.

And I wonder in Paul's experience as a former. Air Force Pilot as well as a police officer in several different contexts. I wonder if Paul has come to learn something about the protection that God provides that we don't even know that we need, that we are in some sense in the eyes of the devil marked people, and Joseph doesn't even realize the danger that he has stepped into with Mary and this baby.

It's recorded for us in the next chapter. After the wise men have come to visit, Jesus is probably at least two, maybe three years old at this point. They've decided for whatever reason, to stay in Bethlehem rather than to go home to Nazareth. And while they're there. Figuring out how to take care of this new baby.

The wise men come from the east and they worship, and they're blown away from, from by that whole experience. Verse 12 says this in chapter two, and being warned in a dream, the magi, the wise men, not to go back to Herod, they turned to their own, returned to their own country by another. Route because of a dream.

Now listen to this verse 13, and after they were gone, that is after the wise men were gone. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt and stay there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and escaped to Egypt.

He stayed there until Herod's death so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled out of Egypt. I called my son. Do you hear the panic and the urgency in this? Get up now and get out because Herod the tool of Satan and the enemy of Jesus is on the run. I suggested to you a year ago that you might wanna read the book by John Mark Comer called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, because too many of us are in too much of a hurry.

But this was a call by God to get after it and to go to Egypt, the unlikely place to hide so that Jesus could be preserved and protected. Could you look back across the landscape of your life? And identify a place in a time where God protected you, where God even hid you. It's actually a biblical concept.

You remember the story of Moses? He gets out ahead of God when he's 40 years old, takes matters into his own hands, kills an Egyptian. Ultimately ends up on the backside of Midian for another four decades, learning what it is to be patient and to not get ahead of God with your plans. You remember the story of David.

David is told by the prophet Samuel that he is going to be the king and replace Saul, but you remember how all that worked out. David has to be on the run because he won't take matters into his own hands. He probably had read the story of Moses and he is determined, absolutely committed. He is going to wait on God to work out this story, and he is not going to kill King Saul even though he had several opportunities.

You find David hiding. A cave, you find David hiding down with the arch enemies of the Israelites. The Philistine acting like a crazy man, but God is hiding him. God is protecting him. God is preserving him. God is working out a much bigger plan that he has to trust. And then there's another guy that we read about in the New Testament, a guy by the name of Saul who in the ninth chapter of the Book of Acts.

Is encountered by the resurrected living Christ knocked off of his heels onto his face, blinded for a time, and then in just a few days is hidden by God back in his hometown of Tarsus for what theologians call the silent period until he emerges several chapters later as a guy named Paul. God used in miraculous ways to give birth to the church and to cause it to grow.

Maybe, maybe God will need to protect you. It's almost certain that he will, because of things that are coming in 2026, that if we knew about them, they would terrify us, but God knows how to take care of us. He knows how to be something of a shepherd sheep dog, if you will, watching over us and if necessary, hiding us for a season so as to protect and preserve us for the plans that he has to carry out in our lives soon.

Would you be open to that? Would you ask for that? Maybe you'd be like my friend Paul, and pray more often for the hedge of protection. Around you and around your family and around what God is trying to do that the devil wants to undo. The third dream comes right after that. 

[00:27:49] Joseph's Third Dream: Returning to Israel

It's found in the 19th verse of the second chapter.

It says that while they were in Egypt, they word, after Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a. Just wanna make sure you're still awake. Appeared. Answer that phone call. Somebody's needing some help. All right. The Lord appeared again to Joseph in a dream in Egypt saying, get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel because those who intended to kill the child are dead.

So he got up, took the child and his mother, and entered the land of Israel. How many of you. Have ever been on a temporary assignment? I know Doc has anybody in the military knows what a temporary assignment is. Joseph went to Egypt. Hurriedly rushed because of the threat of Herod to come after Jesus as the Messiah King.

But he knew from the very moment he received that second dream that the journey into Egypt was for a short season, it was a temporary assignment. Scholars are not absolutely clear. It could have been a matter of two months. It might have been two or three years that they were hiding out in Egypt. We don't know exactly, but for whatever length of time, Joseph knew from the beginning, this is temporary.

God's plan will require that the Messiah come back and engage the ministry that he has been born to fulfill. I don't know if you've been on a temporary assignment. Don't know if you'll be on a temporary assignment this year. We're glad to have D wipe back after knee surgery. Knee surgery's kind of a temporary assignment, you hope right now.

You know, this past year, Judy and I, I just decided 2025. At the beginning of the year, it was gonna be our pit stop year because she broke her shoulder right at the beginning of the year. I had the first time in my life, major surgery on my back. It just kind of became a detour. It became a temporary assignment.

It was a pit stop year for us. We hope that 2026 is much more fun than what we've had in 2025. I don't know what detours might be needed in your life this year. They sometimes can feel like anguish. May we ask God to make them more of an adventure so that we can be and do all that he wants us to be and do in that moment, to be obedient even when God disrupts our plans or the devil does, and to listen to God in those moments and say, God, I don't know if this is for a week or a month or a year.

Or maybe even a decade. I don't know how long this is gonna be, God, but I'm gonna be faithful to you in this moment for however long it lasts, because here's what you learn from Joseph in this moment. He learned to be obedient to the last thing God said to him until God said something else. I dunno about you, but it feels like God gave us a really great ability to dream, to plan, to anticipate, to prepare.

But you've heard the joke. If you wanna make God laugh, tell him your what, your plans, how does that work? He gave us the ability to plan, the ability to dream, the ability to prepare. And if we do that well, we just better make sure we're doing it with a boatload of faith and a great deal of humility before him and saying, God, this is what I think you might want from me.

Change it, shape it, disrupt it. Turn it on its head. Do whatever it is you want to do with it. I am your child and you know best. Could we commit ourselves this year? Personally and collectively that we will do to our ability and faith the the best we can with the last thing that God said to us until he gives us the next step of direction.

That's how he protects and guides us, and teaches us to trust him in the midst of detours. 

[00:32:19] Joseph's Fourth Dream: Settling in Nazareth

One last dream is in the 22nd verse of this chapter. God wants to grow your trust and guide you with kindness. So they come back to Israel and you imagine them standing at the border there between Egypt and Israel, and they're like, well, God said come back.

But it is kind of a big country, at least for a young couple with a donkey for transportation and a baby. Where should we go? Should we go back to Bethlehem? Go back to that innkeeper who helped us. Should we go back to Nazareth? Way up in the north? How about some area? Nobody would look for us there. What about Capernaum?

Maybe way, way up in the north where there are mountains and beautiful streams. You can almost snow ski up in the area of Dan. My guess is is that they probably were discussing it and they said, you know what? God said this is the Messiah. He probably should be hanging out in Jerusalem. But listen to how the last dream comes.

Verse 22 says, but when Joseph heard that AR Archaius was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a thank you, you're really getting it now, he withdrew to the region of Galilee. Then he went and settled in a town called Nazareth to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets that he would be called a Nazarene.

I just love the gentleness, the kindness of God in this last dream, you could make a pretty good argument that Joe should understand faith pretty well by now. But he's been keeping his eye on the culture. He's been watching the political movements of his time just like you and I do. He's watching that even from his hiding place in Egypt, and he gets word straight from God or through the news media that Herod this terribly dysfunctional, dangerous king has finally died.

And there's a new season and a new sheriff in Israel. Now you may remember I told you a little bit about Herod. Herod was incredibly powerful and gifted with projects. Those of you who have been to Israel know you go to Herod's Palace. You can go all over Israel today and you can still see significant evidence of the building projects of King Herod.

He was incredible at building things. He was terrible with people. Another guy by the name of Joe Josephus, the historian of this period. Records that Herod out of paranoia, killed at least six of his family members, the wife that he loved, his grandmother, and at least three of his sons, all because he was paranoid.

That's the kind of dysfunctional family that was operating in power. And you can't really blame Joe that when he comes back and finds out that one of the surviving sons of Herod is ruling over Judea and the region around Jerusalem, you can understand why he might want to go there with Jesus, but why?

It really seems the wrong move and God gives him another dream to accommodate his concern. To bring him comfort and clarity and he leads him to Nazareth, back to that out of the way Village, so that Jesus can grow up in obscurity and in safety for the next 25 or so years until it is time for him to step out into the public eye.

I don't want you to get hung up on the method here, guys. I don't want you to walk away from this message saying, well, God, give me a dream. I wish he would. I'd love to be led that way. I think don't get hung up on the method. Get hung up on the character of the God who cares for you this way. And I didn't want to talk about Joseph because he's not the point of the story.

God is. But I would encourage you to be like Joseph. Be like Joseph in this way. Keep pursuing holiness and hope that would lead you maybe to be described the way he was as a righteous person, that then in that righteousness, as he started to understand the situation with Mary, he was still kind. He was broken, he was disappointed, he was confused, but he was still seeking to be kind because he had been trying to learn to be holy and hopeful in Christ or in God all along, and it made him fulfill that description of being righteous.

I love this point. When you look at Joseph in through, through these dreams, he slowed down to think he was pondering these things. The first dream tells us. He took time to pray and God mercifully gave him the ability to sleep through which those dreams would come. And when he woke up knowing that he had been in the presence of God and in God's messenger, he woke up, stepped up, and he got after it listening, trusting and following until God gave him the next direction.

That'd be a good way for us to live all of 2026. 

[00:38:33] Conclusion and Prayer

Let's pray. God, I just wonder this morning, this wonderful group, group of people in this wonderful place. Lord, I wonder what we should be thinking about and how we should be praying and readying ourselves to respond to you. God, we all have disappointment and confusion.

It may not be that way today, but it might be that way tomorrow. God, would you, would you grow us in faith so that we might have clarity and discernment and understanding with you and for you? God, there are surely things that if we knew the details of them, that that we would be terrified. But that you are already planning to protect us from and in God, we, we pray that you would in fact build a consistent and daily hedge of protection around us and around our family, around this chapel, God, around all that you are desiring to do in these next few days and months.

And that God, we will give you the glory and we will be grateful for all the ways that you protect us. God, we pray that if you need to take us on a detour for your purposes, that we would allow you to interrupt our plans, that we would allow you to redirect us in ways that we had not thought about, not planned for, not even realize were needed.

God, we pray. We pray that as concerns and anxiety and fear boils up in us over and over again like a tide. That God, you would deal with us in compassion and comfort and clarity and gentleness, the kindness that you have toward us and that Lord, in all of that, you might grow in us, of faith that you would be amazed at, of faith that you're dreaming of.

May your dream become ours through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Whose name we pray, everyone said together. Amen. Amen.