"O Gracious Lord God" - 21 February 2016



O Gracious Lord God, you have loved us, and have chosen us to be a royal priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices. We come at your summons to serve you in a ministry of prayer and intercession.

O Gracious Lord God, who has called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; we rejoice that you are the rock of our salvation, the solid, firm, sure and steadfast rock! We pray for this congregation founded on the rock, Jesus Christ, that we may be firmly established in Christ, built up in Christ, filled with the love of Christ, moving forward in the work of Christ.

O Gracious Lord God, who has called us to be a royal priesthood and a holy nation; we pray for the leaders of your Church, for the minister, pastors, priests, Bishops and elders of the various churches here in Edmond; and we pray for Livingwood Missionary Baptist Church; Truelight MBC; Korean Nazarene Church; New Life Community Church; and Bethel Christian Center. That as sojourners and exiles they would abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against their souls, and that their conduct would be honorable, so that when society speaks against them as evildoers, their good deeds would be clear as day to your glory, O God.

O Gracious Lord God, who has chosen us to be people of your own possession, to know mercy and to know what it is to be your people; we pray for all peoples and nations, to include Syria, Turkey, the European Union, and Cuba. Help the leaders to preserve the security and safety of their citizens; and rouse the inhabitants, not to revolt or rebellion, but to decency, charity, and goodwill.

O Gracious Lord God, who has ransomed us from the futile ways inherited from our forbearers, and made us a people who are free, living servants of God; we thank you for the U.S.A., for our large and bounteous land, the abundance of natural resources, the tradition of honesty, justice, fairness and hard work. Be with our nation that we would rediscover the beauty of holiness. Be with our institutions, legislators, courts, businesses, industries, universities, schools, press and media; that we may again discover in the bright light of purity, in the holy radiance of your face, the true brilliance of liberty and justice for all.

O Gracious Lord God, who has liberated us and commissions us to prepare our minds for action, to be sober-minded, to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ; we pray for those who are recovering from surgery….; those dealing with difficulties that are distressing….; those worried about their futures…; fortify them that the storms and stresses would not blow them over, but being held up by your supporting arms they may face the gales with faith and grace, and outlive and outdistance them. 

O Gracious Lord God, to you be all glory and honor! Thank you for this noble vocation of the priesthood of all believers. All of our prayers we offer to you with confidence in your promises sealed guaranteed to us by the blood of Christ your Son. Amen.

[This congregational/pastoral prayer is a reflection on various themes in 1 Peter. Feel free to employ it in your personal devotions, Bible Study groups, or Church gatherings. Mike]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

"Is This the End?" by David Jeremiah. A Review

Image
  I know lots of people like this book, and like this stream of published material. I'm not a Dispensationalist (by conviction) and I am resistant to alarmism - that doom-and-gloomism that says "This is the worst time in all of world history!" or some such. And that is this book from cover-to-cover. I picked the book up to read because a family member had given it to me for a Christmas present and thought I should read it. And I was disappointed. But, in all of my disappointment, I was pleasantly surprised. I was pleasantly surprised because Dr. Jeremiah actually pushes back against a certain mindset that normally walks along with Dispensational alarmism. Jeremiah asks "Will America revive again? Will we reverse our descent and regain respect, strength, and stability? ... those are not the questions we should really be asking. If the survival of America and the stability of the world are the sources of your hope, then your hope is sadly misplaced. The question you mu...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more