Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? We will extol you, our God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit magnificently beautiful, amazingly gracious, all together satisfying to the deepest longings of our soul.

We praise you for the work you are doing in our church. We praise you for the generosity of this church; use the funds and translated resources to advance your gospel. Lord, hallow your name; your kingdom come; your will be done. Strengthen Haitian pastors and churches. Raise up a Spanish-speaking church plant in Columbia Heights to exalt the worth of your Son, Jesus. We pray for A and the M family. Give them diligence to labor for the gospel in Venezuela; and give them discernment about next steps. We also pray for the religious visa process. Your word tells us that we make plans, but you turn the hearts of kings like water; so we pray for favor, for a seamless process and for a religious visa to be granted sooner than we could ever expect.

Father, we also pray for other gospel churches laboring in our city. We pray for GraceDC and pastor Glenn Hoburg. Use that church body to see many people come to faith in Jesus, and be built up in him. We thank you for the continual support of Capitol Hill Baptist and pray that you would give the elders of that church wisdom and discernment as they seek to shepherd a growing body. Father, we pray for our brothers and sisters at Washington International Church; even as they worship this morning, fill them with a deep delight in Christ.

For the glory of your name, Lord, we pray that your gospel would advance. We pray that it would advance among the Behdini Kurds and throughout the schemes in Scotland. We pray that your Son would be exalted in Kazan, Russia and among the Yazidi people. Father, in the name of Jesus, fill your laborers with the Holy Spirit that they might boldly proclaim Christ. We pray for R & E; give them much grace and favor as they settle in to their new home. We bring Noah Joyner before your throne this morning. Grant him grace as he labors to teach Haitian pastors. Father, we pray for our brother A.S. as he prepares to move to Abu Dhabi. Give him much joy in Christ, and use him mightily for your namesake. Thank you for the ways you have sovereignly worked in his life. Cause him to treasure your word; fill him with the Holy Spirit constantly reminding him of that you’re in control of all things.

Father, we pray for C and T. Thank you for the many ways they serve our body and the joy they have in you. Build them up all the more in Christ. Help them raise C and O in the gospel of our Lord. Father, we thank you for all the children among us. What a joy they are! Give us the grace to serve the children among us well. Use them to humble us and sanctify us; use them to keep us young and joyful. Father, in the name of Jesus, we ask that you would bring each little one of Restoration Kids to faith in Jesus at a very young age. Yes, Lord, magnify the name of Christ through even the littlest ones at our church.

And this morning Lord, we pray for ourselves. We thank you for many ways you have given us grace this past week. From the food we ate to the friendships we enjoy to the clothes we wore to the jobs we worked; these are all gifts from you, and we thank you. Help us to increasingly depend upon you and enjoy you.

We also come this morning come confessing our guilt, our sinful judgmental attitudes and absurd hypocrisy. There is no end to the list of ways that we judge others. We consider ourselves experts on the things that matter to us, and look at those around us with disdain and disgust as we evaluate there inability to be as intellectual, funny, fashionable, talented, experienced, balanced, reasonable, sensitive, loving, pure, wise, God-fearing, gospel-centered, or generally just as good as we are. Our hypocrisy is shocking as we willfully blind ourselves to the mountain of remaining sin in our own lives while we examine with smug satisfaction the broken and sin stained live those around us. Forgive us, Lord.

We need a Savior! We call upon Jesus’ name for deliverance from our love of self and condemning judgment toward others. As Jesus perfectly filled every one of your commands, his attitude toward others remained unshakably characterized by love and compassion. Even has he was being punished for our sin, that we now confess, Jesus was pleading, “Father forgive them.” You poured out your just wrath for our injustices on him. He emptied himself of all but love, so that we in our helplessness would receive adoption by his shed blood.

Lead us, Lord, to Calvary, where we see our sin in the blinding light of your love for us through the wonderful cross. Send your Spirit to end the strife in our broken hearts, that we might look at one another with the love and compassion that you have lavished upon us. Let us experience the transforming power of your wonderful grace. In Jesus’ powerful name, Amen.[1]

[1] Last three paragraphs taken, in slightly adapted form, from Prone to Wonder: Prayers of Confession and Celebration, 118-119.