Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

Father,

We come to you as the new people that you have created in Christ. Formerly we were far away, outsiders, without hope and without God in the world. There was a gulf of separation that alienated us from you.

But now through Christ, we have been brought near to you. Reconciliation has been made through the cross. Where there was once hostility and your rightful judgement for our sin, now peace has been made. Our offenses are dealt with - Christ took the punishment we deserve upon himself.

And you have helped us not just with the vertical broken relationship - but also with our horizontal relationships. “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and were all made to drink of one Spirit’. Those of us who follow Christ now have commonality, in Christ, as the parts of His body that God has arranged as he purposes. We belong together - and all drink of His Spirit. Black and White, Male and Female, Wealthy and Poor, young and old - whatever our earthy points of difference, are not reasons for us to be divided any more - since we all have a common experience and identity in Christ. Our outward differences rather enrich and highlight the greater and deeper unity that we possess as your children. We are all sinners, saved by your grace, waiting for your coming Kingdom.

Yet Lord, as we reflect upon the past week, we know that we struggle at times to remember who we we really are. We often live superficially and allow those outward differences to impact the way we relate to one another. So often the path of least resistance is to gravitate toward and relate to only the people that look outwardly just like us. Forgive us lord for our small minded selfishness.

• Forgive us for only talking to those after church who we find it easy to talk to

• Forgive us for only being eager to meet up with people who we find easy to spend time with.

• Forgive us judging our experience at community groups on the basis of what we get out of it rather than how we might love and serve the other members

• Forgive us for the times when we have not rejoiced at others good news or suffered alongside our brothers and sisters in their times of trial

Though we are aware of our sin Lord, we also recall your promises of forgiveness to those who repent; you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This week help us especially as we seek you as a church through Fasting and Prayer. May you draw us closer together in love and unity - even as we draw close to you. May our desires for the pleasures of this world diminish and our longing for You and your eternal kingdom increase. Show us afresh how we are like flowers of the field, flourishing for a few short days and then withering. Teach us to number our days aright and to gain a heart of wisdom. Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

Adoration

Lord, how great, how just and how merciful you are!

You sit enthroned above the cherubim. You sit above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. You stretch out the heavens like a curtain and spread them out like a tent. Our idols we carry in our hands, our minds and our hearts. But nobody carries you – on the contrary, you lovingly carry your people!

Lord, you are so righteous and just that we can’t even comprehend the notion. Lord, you are passionate for what is right at all times and you do not compromise for the sake of comfort. We come to you with our pleas for justice and you not only provide deliverance, either in the immediate or in the expected, but you show us how much bigger your justice is. You remind us that justice is ultimately about your name which has been treated unjustly through our idolatry and short-sightedness.

O Lord, and how merciful you are! In your manifold wisdom you managed to be just to your Name and merciful to us who had rebelled against you. We seek justice Lord and desire no mercy for our enemies, but you took your enemies and lavished love and blessings and riches on them. Maybe, maybe some people might manage to forgive their enemies, but who lavishes them with blessings and hope? And all at the expense of the Lord Jesus who was treated unjustly by His own creation!

Confession

Lord, we confess that there were times over the past week when we didn’t appreciate your name, we didn’t trust your justice and we forgot your mercy. Your glory seemed abstract and distant. Our problems were bigger so we focused our thoughts on them, tossing and turning them in our minds. Praising you was hard at times and we wondered how it could possibly help us.

When people hurt us this week, we swiftly demanded justice and looked down on their faults. Your justice seemed far off, delaying a great while, so we appealed to our resumes and intelligence and moral superiority to punish them in our minds.

At times our problems seemed big this week and so we grumbled. We forgot your past mercies and your future ones and the promises we have in Jesus and wondered if it wasn’t time for us to do something. Other people seemed to be better off so we tried to rationalize our reaching out to the work of our hands to solve our problems and make ourselves feel better.

We ask Lord for forgiveness and for faith to believe your promises and for strength to move away from the lies we hear in our heads about ourselves, the world and you.

Thanksgiving

But Lord, we are grateful that in your great justice and mercy you forgive us, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We thank you that you reveal our sin to us and you give us strength to repent and faith to confess our sins.

Lord, we are grateful for your daily provision of all our needs. You provide food, drink and shelter. And you provide your Word and your Spirit who keep us.

We thank you that we get to hear your word and to meet with one another. And we thank you that we can send a team to the Middle East to encourage our brothers and sisters there.

Supplication

We pray that you would save many people among the B. K. and among all the Syrian refugees in that region. We pray that the Bible would be translated into B. soon and that all your servants laboring there would see much fruit. We pray that you strengthen them and encourage them and give them unity of mind and spirit to serve you.

In particular we pray that you give N., J., J. and D. opportunities to speak the truth of the Gospel to the people they meet and that that truth would produce good lasting change.

Lord we pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters the broader Middle East region. Lord, give them grace to be faithful and bring their persecutors to you. Glorify your name by breaking the hearts of murderers and giving them faith in you.

Help us here in Washington DC not to stray from your truth under peer pressure and other types of pressures. We are tempted to believe we have a lot to loose if we speak the truth and that makes us weak. Help us put those things behind us and speak the truth in love. Would you bring sound thinking and life to the city we live in?

Lord, I pray you empower J. to preach your word faithfully and us to be transformed by it.

In Jesus’ Name

Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

Father, this morning we rejoice: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death by death. We praise you for the baptism of D, C, C and A. What a joyful celebration as we remember the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Use us, Lord, use us to see many more people come to trust and treasure Jesus Christ and be baptized proclaiming the good news of all that Jesus purchased for us. For those here this morning that have been baptized, cause this day to be a day of remembering; a day of remembering your grace to them as they came to know Jesus; a day of remembering your grace to them through this church and other faithful churches that shared the gospel with them and built them up in Jesus Christ.

Holy, triune God, there is no other God beside you. You are the Lord and there is no other. You are God and there is none like you. We rest in your promises. We rejoice in the promise that in your presence there is the fullness of joy. Holy Spirit, remind us of all that we have in God and make us long for heaven all the more. We worship you this morning, Lord.

As we do, as we sing songs of praise and pray prayers of adoration, we are reminded of our divided hearts. Far too often our worship is inconsistent. Worshipping you one moment then doubting you the next. Far too often our worship is not wholehearted. Worshipping you one minute then thinking about how we can’t wait for church to be over so we can get on with our day. You have called us to set our minds on things above, yet we willfully and continually think about and find ultimate comfort in things of this earth. We forget who you are. We neglect to dwell on your promises. We pursue the fleeting pleasures of this world in food, immorality, and entertainment. We stare at screens instead of savoring your word. We repent of our folly and foolishness. We confess our sin and idolatry.

Holy Spirit, help us put to death the remaining sin in our hearts. Sever the weeds of sin that entangle us at the root. Give us bold faith that gazes at the cross longer than we linger over our own sins. Satisfying God, entice us with the good news from heaven so that our worship erupts from hearts captivated by Christ Jesus. Clear our spiritual vision; remove any blindness to sin that we might see and savor Jesus above all things.

Cause Restoration Church to be a body marked by joy and contentment. Use us to minister the gospel to each other. Use us to generously speak words of encouragement to our fellow covenant members. By your grace, help us to not grumble but to graciously serve others. For your glory, open our eyes to how we can build others up in our everyday interactions. Let no corrupting talk come out of our mouths. Grant us self-control so that gossip and slander have no place among us. Let us be quick to point out grace in each others’ lives rejoicing that this is evidence of your presence among us.

Lord we praise you for all that you are doing among us. We praise you for the selfless service of J and E as they clean up and tear down each week. We praise you for W’s desire to serve those who are new to our church. We praise you for the dozens of discipling relationships that are present within our body. Thank you for the grace of Christ that is evident among us. Help us to think about the harvest from our gospel labors that will come in due time, if we do not give up.

We thank you that we live in a nation where we can freely worship. We pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. Use the murderous evil against Pastor Yohan in India to be blood-soaked gospel seeds that take bear fruit for decades to come. We pray for the wrongfully imprisoned Christians in Sudan. Give them boldness to advance the gospel even as they sit in prison cells. In your sovereign goodness, use persecution against Christians for gospel promotion. In your sovereign goodness, save those who persecute Christians and turn them into church planters. In your scandalous grace, take terrorist and turn them into pastors. As the next ISIS suicide bomber walks to his assignment, bring him to repentance and faith that he might not die, but bring others to life by spreading the gospel. Do this Lord. We plead in the bold name of Jesus. Do this for the glory of your name.

You save with everlasting salvation. You save with scandalous grace. You save for the glory of your name. You save for the eternal satisfaction of your people. Don’t let the gospel become small to us. Don't let the amazingly gracious good news of the gospel become dull to us. Awaken us. Don’t let us live comfortable, safe lives that flow down the river of the American Dream. Cause us to hope in the reality of heaven.

We praise you that your gospel is going forth through our sister church Covenant Life in Tampa this morning. As they send out D and B to plant The Heights church, bless these brothers and their wives and children. Use them to make much of Christ Jesus in Tampa and beyond.

We praise you for your word. We praise you for the book of Isaiah. Use our brother Nathan to encourage us as he helps us graze in the pasture of your word. We pray all of this in the bold, strong name of Jesus. Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano

Worship through Prayer

Holy Lord, we praise you that your word stands forever. We praise you that you alone are eternal. We praise you that you, Lord, are the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. We praise you that you do not grow faint or weary. We praise you that your understanding is unsearchable. We praise you that you give your glory to no other.

We rejoice in you this morning, Lord. And we rest in you. Many of us are tired and weary. We are faint and have no might. We are anxious and fearful. Yet, we rest in your promises. We graze in the pasture of your word. Give us strength, we pray. Cause our souls to wait eagerly upon you. Renew our strength, Lord. Remind us of all that you have given us. Holy Spirit, minister to our souls and apply the balm of the gospel that we would be refreshed, that we would find deep, abiding joy in the word and in communing with you in prayer, that we would eagerly seek out community looking for ways we can build others up.

Lord, we confess that we often find you dull and boring. We confess that we often walk in worry and fear forgetting your promises and your power. We repent of our sin. Help us hate our sin. We confess that we are more aware of what you haven’t given us or what we don’t have rather than being thankful for all that we do have. We confess that we think more about how others aren’t serving us than how we might serve others. We confess that we are quick to fight for our individual preferences even if that compromises the unity of the body. Forgive us, Lord. We repent of our sin. We confess that we often judge others by their appearances. We confess that we pridefully compare ourselves with others. We confess that we are impatient with people who annoy us. Have mercy on us, O God.

As we confess our sin, we celebrate our Savior. As we confess our sin, we cherish our blood-bought relationship with you, our Father in Heaven. We rejoice in your words that tell us, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sin…I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” So, this morning we return, we rest, we rejoice in you. Jesus paid it all, all to him we owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow. Holy Spirit, warm our souls to the joys of this good news. Satisfy the taste buds of our souls with these unthinkable mercies and this lavish grace richly pour out upon us.

Make us heralds of this good news. Use us Lord to encourage each other. In our Community Groups help us, Lord, help us spur each other on toward love and good deeds. Use us to point each other to the joys of heaven as we walk alongside each other in the trials of this earth. We praise you for the gospel community and hospitality among us; deepen it all the more, we pray. Make us eager to serve others, to develop new relationships and deepen exiting friendships. Use us to see people come to faith in Jesus. Help us share the gospel with our neighbors and be a light to the nations.

Build up your church in the Middle East. Use us as an encouragement to R and E, and other gospel workers, as they labor. Grant our sister A much grace in these early days as she begins her work among refugees. Prepare our brother A as he gets ready to help a church plant in Leeds. Work mightily through our brother A and our sister M, and their children, as they look toward planting a Spanish-speaking church in Columbia Heights. We pray for our members that have recently left DC. Whether they are in Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Ottawa or Gillette, Wyoming use them to strength local churches and make disciples that delight in the supremacy of Jesus Christ. We praise you Lord that, in your kindness, you have made us a sending church. Let us rejoice in the many ways you’re using this little body to advance your gospel to the ends of the earth.

We pray for the children at Restoration Church. Thank you for the opportunity to disciple the littlest ones among us. We praise you for the dozens and dozens of members who serve in Restoration Kids. Help all of us enjoy and value teaching the gospel to kindergartners and first graders and pre-schoolers. As so many of our children get ready to start back to school, give them grace to not be anxious or worried. We thank you for the many teachers among us. As D, A, T, L, P, C, E and L and others get ready to start another school year, use them Lord. Use them to love students and teach them faithfully that they might be equipped to help humanity flourish.

We pray for this school. Continue to grant principal Kimberly M wisdom to lead this school with integrity and in a way that allows all students to thrive. We pray for Daniel I, who uses this room to teach his students. Use his creativity and giftings to help students enjoy learning and equip them to develop the arts. We pray for R and B as they start school here. Grant them grace Lord to make friends, for language comprehension, to learn the way of school here in the US. Use them as bastions of the gospel here at Woodrow Wilson High School. In your kindness Lord, give them joy and delight in learning and attending school here.

Lord, we are so thankful for who you are and what you have done. Retune our hearts this morning that we might not only sing your praise today, but rejoice in you all week. Take your word and plant it deep within us that gospel fruit might come in due season. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

by Kathryn Feliciano