⁵ Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from Him.
⁶ Truly He is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress; I will not be shaken.
⁷ My salvation and my honour depend on God;
He is my mighty rock, my refuge.
⁸ Trust in Him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.
~ Psalm 62:5-8

What a beautiful prayer this psalm is! Because God is our fortress, rock, refuge, salvation and honour, we shall not be shaken, we have hope, we have rest and we can pour out our hearts to Him.
In my church in Scotland, we loved to sing this lovely version of this psalm – may it bless you as much as it did us.

Petition: Please join with us in praying for:

1. The World — The number of confirmed cases is 21,590,578 (up 1,870,172 compared with 1,755,279 the previous week). There have been 773,649 deaths of people with Covid-19 (up 44,904 compared with 41,678). The number of new daily cases in the world passed 300,000 on Sunday for the first time.

2. Australia — now has had 23,288 cases (up 2,204 compared with 3,188 in the previous week) with 396 deaths (+101 compared with 83 the previous week).

State	Total Cases	Weekly Change TW/LW	Total Deaths	Change in Deaths TW/LW
ACT	113	+0	3	0
NSW	3,950 3,861	+ 91 (77)	52	+2 (0)
NT	33	+0	0	0
QLD	1,091	+3 (3)	6	0
SA	461	+2 (6)	4	0
TAS	230	+ 1 (0)	13	0
VIC	16, 764	+2,105 (3,102)	309	+99 (87)
WA	646	+4 (0)	9	0

The situation in Victoria seems to be stabilising in terms of numbers of cases, but today was the worst day for deaths (25). NSW has had a good weekend.

There are 680 people in hospital (+ 32) with 47 in intensive care (-4).
5,297,558 tests have been carried out, with 0.4% being positive.
14,080 people have recovered. There are 7,971 active cases.

3. Vaccine and Cures —

Now here’s something to smile about — esteemed Melbourne immunologist and the namesake of the Doherty Institute, Professor Peter Doherty, is very optimistic about the arrival of an effective COVID-19 vaccine.

Professor Doherty told Melbourne radio station 3AW that he believes there’s an 80 per cent chance we’ll have a vaccine in 12 months.

“I think it’s very, very likely. I reckon we’ll get there. We’ve avoided a lot of traps we kind of found out about … over the years.”

4. Church — Pray especially for the churches in Melbourne under strict lockdown.
Pastoral care, funerals, weddings, baptisms, communion and many other things that we used to take for granted, are especially difficult.

5. Personal and Family — Some marriages have been under considerable strain through this pandemic. Pray for healing and restoration.

A Prayer of Repentance:
O Lord God, we repent of our self-reliance and our belief in others.
Help us to look to You alone as our rock and our salvation.
May we find our rest in You. Amen.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving:
Lord Jesus, we praise You that You are the Good Shepherd.
That You say, “Come to me, all you who are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
That You are our Rock and that Your name is a strong tower.
Thank You that in the midst of a turbulent world, we can know peace.
Give us Your peace and enable us to share it with others.
In Your Name, Amen.

___

Weekly devotions by David Robertson via Christians United — COVID19 Call to Prayer.[Photo by David Brooke Martin on Unsplash]