Because of Christ, we have gained access to our heavenly Father (Eph. 2:18). It really is a privilege to pray to the Lord! And that is our hope for the next week at Deerbrook as we invite all of us to join together in the joy of prayer.The Scriptures have many examples of OT prayers and NT prayers. Our text this Sunday is Psalm 143. It demonstrates that our trust in the Lord starts with our dependence upon God and his mercy. It is good for us to pause, acknowledge our struggles and then bring our requests to God. The facts are clear. No one has it all together, and as David expresses, there are enemies all around us.So, what shall we do? We make decisions to pour out our requests to God. We trust him with our past, present and future. Praise be to God, who offers us relief, comfort and direction as we open our hands to him in prayer.