Every Wednesday we invite you to Pause & Pray with us. Today’s Pause & Pray is curated by Thurselle Chisolm-Williams.

Image: Loveis Wise; Courtesy of GoogleDoodles – google.com/doodles

Pray:

God, on this first day of Black History Month, we pause and give you thanks for the contributions of the people of the Pan-African experience. We honor the work of their hands, the brilliance of their minds, and the peace in their spirits. I pray that the resilience of the ancestors would be at work within us and that we would continually join in partnership with allies of every race, creed, and color. I pray that when we see injustice anywhere, to any people, that we would cry loud and spare not until salvation comes. We pause and pray today for Asian Communities, Israel and Palestinian relations, and we hold space for the family of Tyree Nichols.

Meditate:

Read Isaiah 58.
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?” 58:6

Listen:

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson
Performed by 3 Young Kings

Lyrics: (Please read verses 2 & 3 at https://hymnary.org/hymn/UMH/519)
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.