Sovereign and blessed God in the name of Jesus Christ we come to you in prayer acknowledging your greatness; you alone are self-sufficient; you alone are infinitely happy; you alone are all powerful; you alone know all things; you alone deserve all glory; you are Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of our lives. For this we give you praise.
Deepen our humility before you, dependence on you, and thankfulness to you. Captivate us with your glorious grace; by the power of your Holy Spirit, cause us to be satisfied by and delight in your goodness. Help us, in view of your mercy and greatness, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices – this is our spiritual act of worship. Give us the grace and strength to not be conformed by this world, but fill us with your Spirit that we might be transformed by the renewal of our mind.
We pray for your glory not just in our lives, but around the globe. Oh, that you would be the supreme joy of the Comorian people of Madagascar and the Tay people of Vietnam and the Behdini Kurds of Northern Iraq. Raise up men and women – even from this congregation – to carry the gospel to these lands that they might know, praise and enjoy you forever. We pray for the nations right here in our city; we pray for the Hispanic community in Columbia Heights. By your grace, we plead with you in the name of Jesus Christ, that you would use our efforts to start a Spanish speaking, bible-believing, Christ-exalting church in Colombia Heights. Use the current Bible study to increasingly see people not just hear about Jesus but come to faith in Jesus.
We pray for our own congregation. We give you praise for your evident grace working in and through our church. Continue to knit us together in love that we might reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of you, our Lord. Build up the body of Christ here at Restoration Church that we might attain the unity of the faith; give us grace to speak the truth in love, to serve each other selflessly, to reach out to each other intentionally. Yes, Lord by your grace, grow us up into Christ Jesus.
We praise you for the ways you have done and are doing this. And at the same time, we confess that we often pursue our own interests not those of Christ. We confess that we are selfish thinking ourselves better and more important than those around us. We confess that too often we masquerade behind our good behavior, which only conceals our self-righteous heart. We confess that we use the stock phrases and expected answers to keep people from really knowing our sins, our hurts and even our hopes. We confess that we desire stock phrases and expected answers from others so that we don’t really have to engage them and be inconvenienced by their honesty. Father, when we stop and think for just a moment, we realize just how creative and corrupt we are in our sin against you and others.
Oh, Lord God, we are great sinners rebelling against you in word, thought, and deed. Give us grace to not just change our behavior and words, but to stop believing lies and worshipping the false gods of image, success, materialism, and comfort. By your Holy Spirit convict us of sin and point us to the redemption and satisfaction found in Christ alone – He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed; we were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, Christ Jesus. God of all grace, in the name of Jesus, restore and strengthen us that we might delight in the supremacy of Christ our King and spread His Kingdom. Amen.