"Our Help Is in the Name of the LORD" - 10 January 2016 AM an PM


Sunday Morning:

Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth. Lord, please hear us and for Christ‘s sake answer us.

O God Most High, who uses our trials and the testing of our faith to bring about steadfast endurance in us, we ask you to lift up those who are dispirited in body or mind, those who are grieved or terribly troubled with fear and anxiety, and those who are walking through troubled times in home and health. We especially ask your care for these….grant them recovery and restored health.

O Lord of the Harvest: have regard to the prayers of your servants in this congregation; send us forth as laborers into your harvest; fit and prepare us by your grace for our vocation and ministry; increase in us the Spirit of power, love and a sound mind; strengthen us to endure hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ; and grant that your Holy Spirit may prosper our work, that by our life and doctrine we may show forth your glory and bring forward the salvation of many.

Oh Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we ask that your hand would be on our soon-to-be-launched Care Groups for good: that our Care Groups will be enriching and invigorating; hearts will be mended; hopes will be fortified; lives will be positively impacted; unbelievers and those who no longer associate with your church will come, belong and believe.

Look upon your Church throughout the world, to include the Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian and Belarusian Greek Catholic Churches; Losetho Evangelical Church; Reformed churches of Hungary and Romania; the Methodist Church of Ghana and India; and the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa. Give your people your comforting, courage-inspiring aid. Strengthen us in our longing to serve you more faithfully, leading us away from the doctrines of demons to that which is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, and cause us to succeed in genuine godliness.

O Lord God, the Almighty, the Most High, we plead with you to turn your face to look upon the U.S.A. Do not forsake us nor give us over to what we may deserve, but instead turn us toward you, and spur us on to chastity, sobriety, virtuous living, generosity and equanimity. Protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and guide our governmental leaders to remember and return to their vocation “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

We implore your kindest care and compassion on the nations of our world, especially where there is so much that upsets and alarms. We especially pray for your guidance, peacefulness, law and order for Mexico, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, North and South Korea, …

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Sunday Evening:

O LORD, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; you are good to all, and your mercy is over all that you have made (Psalm 145.8-9): it is to you we bring our petitions and requests and thanks.

After months of planning, plotting, and preparing, we have come to the point of starting up our Care Groups. First, we give you our thanks for this moment and all who have volunteered their homes, their time, their prayers and their energy. Next, we ask you to shower your enriching kindness on our groups that they will be healthy, health-enhancing, growth-producing and galvanizing. Finally, we pray that they would be functional and valuable in bringing people to belong to your church and believe in your Christ. O Lord, hear our prayer.

As we begin making plans for our Mission VBS to Carnegie and our own Outreach VBS, we look to you to direct and guide the whats, whys, wherefores, and hows of all the details, helpers, funds, materials and resources; as well as preparing the hearts and lives and minds of those whom we will be reaching out to. And we pray for the young women in our congregation who are dreaming about, and starting to make plans to become mission interns, help us to encourage them, and aid them in all of the arranging and organizing and fundraising. And we also ask you to be with our two young men as they pursue the Gospel ministry. O Lord, hear our prayer.

We know you love your church, Lord, and cherish your congregations; we pray for your church in all places, including our congregation along with Asbury United Methodist Church; Bible Methodist; Billy Hooten Memorial UMC; Capitol Hill United Methodist; and Christ UMC. May your word speed ahead, being honored among us and going out from us; may we be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not all have faith. And faithful Lord establish us, guard us against the evil one, and direct our hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ (2 Thessalonians 3.1-5). O Lord, hear our prayer.


Father, for those falling into various trial,…help them to count it all joy, knowing that this testing of their faith produces steadfastness. May they allow this steadfastness to have its full effect in them that they may become perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1.2-4). O Lord, hear our prayer.

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