Ask, Seek, Knock - 13 September 2015 A.M. and P.M.

Sunday A.M.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, we come to you at your Son’s behest who bid us to ask, and it would be given to us; to seek, and we would find; to knock, and the door would be opened to us (Luke 11.9-10).

We pray for the Church of our Lord Jesus throughout the world, including the Church of England, the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion in North America, the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, the United Methodist Church, and the Church of South India. Preserve your people from harm and poverty that they may be loyal followers all their days. Grant repentance and reparations where they are fitting; restore orthodoxy where it has withered into near nothingness; strengthen the trustworthy, and grant success to those working to restore fidelity.

Thank you for the reminder of your lavish feast (Isaiah 25.6-9), and our part in drawing all nations to come. Bless and enrich those who have gone to other lands and other places to make disciples of all nations; especially Dan, his family and the MTW-Japan team. We beseech you to fill up what is lacking financially, physically and spiritually. You who open doors that no one can shut, and shut doors so that no one can open: open doors for them and for your Gospel.

We also ask your richest care, healing touch, and sustaining comfort for all who are ailing, alarmed, and anxious, ……

Lord God, we intercede on behalf of those we know who are unbelievers or having once confessed their faith in Christ have stumbled and sunk away….we ask for your Spirit to convince them of their sin and misery, to enlighten their minds in the knowledge of Christ, to renew their wills, and to persuade and enable them to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to all in the Gospel.

Finally, we implore your kindness to be with this congregation. Please empower us to reach out to our piece of Oklahoma with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Fill our homes and families with health and godliness. Watch over our children who are in college, at the A.F. Academy, or following their vocational pursuits. And for those of our number concerned about their finances, supply their lack, and ease their concerns by your loving care.

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Sunday P.M.

Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to you, our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. You, O LORD, build up Jerusalem; you gather the outcasts of Israel. You heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. You determine the number of the stars; you give to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. O LORD, you lift up the humble; and you cast the wicked to the ground (Psalm 147:1-6).

We pray for your Church throughout the nations, including Bethel Congregational Church; Mayflower Congregational; Grace Covenant Church and Life Church; in Paul’s words, grant them, as your chosen ones, holy and beloved, to put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as you have forgiven them, so may they also forgive (Colossians 3:12-13). O Lord, hear our prayer.

Lord God, it seems that our nation is being pulled in opposite directions; strained by conflicting ideologies and idolatries. Secularism and skepticism pushing and pulling here and there; lawlessness and licentiousness shoving about; and then there are competing voices calling for governmental redemptions, judicial atonements and constitutional salvations. Often times declaring ourselves wise, we show ourselves fools. Lord God, you alone can bring sanity, sensibleness and salvationto nations. We implore you to forgive our national sins, and restore the United States of America to the rule of just law, social civility, and moral stability. O Lord, hear our prayer.

We look around at a sick, sorrowful, scornful, and scorched planet and cry out to you to please shower your mercy on our world, that peace, health, order, justice, and wellbeing might prevail throughout the nations, so that your Gospel may go forward unhindered, your creation be beautifully restored and your Church in all places prospered. O Lord, hear our prayer.

O God of justice, God of might: hear the cries of your people who are being trounced and thumped and thrashed in so many places: regions of India, places in Afghanistan and Syria; areas in North Africa; territories of Asia; and in other locations. Give them strength to face their captors and oppressors with Spirit-empowered Christ-likeness. Give them the right words to speak as they bear witness to Christ. We also ask you to deliver them and restore them to safety. For those hunting them down and hurting them, we pray that they would be overawed by your peoples’ faithfulness and by the Gospel that they would be converted. And those who will not, we pray with the Psalmist: “Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day! Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually” (Psalm 74:22-23 ESV)! O Lord, hear our prayer.