Father, we praise you for being such a good and merciful God!

You created a good world and we messed it up. You are good and loving and holy and we are sinners and evil. In spite of that, you did not satisfy justice by destroying us, but by giving your own Son to save us. Had we been in your shoes, we would have demanded and acted to accomplish vengeance and vindication. You, however, patiently pleaded with us and patiently arranged circumstances so as to make us cry for mercy.

Father, we praise you for being good and merciful.

We confess that we are neither good nor loving. We love ourselves, and our good is as good as our belly and comfort. This past week we thought highly of ourselves, we demanded vindication when people went against us and we feared for our reputations and well-being at the expense of truth and love. We sought prosperity by looking at people around us who are better off and by trying to copy their idols and self-images.

Forgive us Father for our rebellion. We exchanged your glory for that which does not profit. Forgive us Lord for having forsaken you, the fountain of living waters, to hew broken cisterns for ourselves (cf. Jer. 2).

We thank you that in Christ you forgive us our rebellion. We thank you that you discipline us in love, rather than destroy us. We thank you that you provide us with your clear written word and with your Holy Spirit to guide us. We thank you that you provide us with all the good things we have. We thank you for all the food, drink, clothes, shelter, families and friends you have given us. We thank you for all the talents, jobs and other good things you have provided.

We pray Father that we would live by faith in your Word rather than by sight in our limited and faulty understanding. We pray that we would not do what is right in our own eyes, nor follow the instincts of our bodies to do what feels right, but that we would do what your written word reveals to be good, lovely and true. We pray that you would empower us to resist the temptation to give into the sins of lust, greed, envy, discontentedness, and self-reliance. We pray we would not fear for our reputations or lives and not long for the images the world sets in front of our eyes as being good, successful, smart and attractive. We pray we worship Jesus, the image of the invisible God in whom all things hold together.

Father we thank you for the new B baby girl and we pray that you bless her and bring her to you. Please bless the entire family in this time of change, encourage, protect and provide for them. We pray for the A and the C families that are expecting, that the births would go easy and that everybody would be healthy.

We thank you for Iglesia Biblica Sublime Gracia and for the fact that it is now a reality. We pray that you bless this congregation as they covenant together today. We pray that this church would be a light in Columbia Heights and that many people would turn to you there.

Father, we pray for the Gospel to be proclaimed in Washington DC and beyond. We pray that you would empower us and other believers to faithfully proclaim the truth of the Gospel in the face of the bait, attractive lies, mockery, intimidation, threats and physical and emotional danger that fallen leaders, regimes and societies use to fight against your Gospel and people. We pray that you weaken these evil leaders, regimes and societies and bring light into the darkness.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.