Hold on when your heart is heavy, when the bills stack up, when friends walk away, when enemies are close by and injustice prospers, hold on to God's wonders to perform. Hold on when your grief is overwhelming. Hold on just a little while longer.

Through each other's generosity and help, we can lift each other toward hope, that every little thing will be all right. There's always something beautiful and productive when we persevere.

Stand firm too in good teaching, so we may stay focused on the truth we know: Jesus gives us hope, faith, and comfort in every good work. Keep your eyes on Jesus because the future is still unfolding.

God is still good, even when we feel hurt or are wronged. When we are suffering, still we can look to God for the moments of joy to come. Tradition isn't our God, but we remind ourselves of those who came before, who can inspire us on to faith and hope, who serve as an example of how to hold on.

People with no political power, enslaved and oppressed, imprisoned unjustly and systemically kept in poverty sang this. From Paul's letters to US slavery to the present day injustices, this faith will not fail if we stand firm. Despite the challenges of our lives, we can trust God and stand firm.

Ask that God will give you God's eye, God's ears, and God's mouth, that we can see, hear, and speak so people live life more abundantly, living a life of service. When people see this church, they can say we see, hear, and speak the ways that reflect God.

We have an inheritance, not in money, but God's promise that no matter what's happening today, joy comes in the morning. We see with the eyes of hope, compassion, and faith. Pray like Paul that we will come clear eyed and vision focused.

We don't merely remember the departed today but recognize how they lived out God's promises of hope, so we too look for God's glory no matter what's happening.

Trust God even when we can't trace God. Our eyes are open to the unseen reality of God's work. Heaven is never furloughed. God has endless job opportunities to make a difference in people's lives.

No matter what is happening in the government, God's promise in the face of fear guides us through confusion and conflicts.

We pray to have hearts open to see what God sees. If we're going to do this, we will have to overcome the distractions that keep us from it. We live in a time of division and fatigue, and it seems the light of public compassion has dimmed.

Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1 reminds us to give thanks for those who have gone before us, who walked by faith and not by sight. He prays that the church would have the spiritual insight for their hearts to see God's activity around and in them.

One is Stephen Ministry, which meets every Sunday morning before worship to learn how to listen and care for those who are hurting. They see ministry as something done through us, not just by or to us.

While facing defeat, Paul praises God, from whom all blessings flow. He's intentionally choosing a doxology instead of doom. When the money is short, friends leave, and disease ravages our bodies, we still set our hearts on the good sustaining grace of God.

God rescues, delivers, in the middle of the trouble, not only for us but for God's self. Not deliverance from suffering but through suffering. When God has been good to you, you take that and share it with others in their suffering. Deliverance is not just for you but for the whole.

God never walks away. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, as David says. Even in our final hours, we can find God is with us.

Being in ministry does not exempt us from devastating blows. Paul encourages Timothy, as Paul faces imprisonment and death, to fight the good fight and keep the faith. In the face of the end, he laments that he's been deserted by colleagues in ministry but never by God.