"O Lord, You Know..." 1 October 2017


O Lord, you know what we have need of even before we ask; therefore we pray with greater confidence that you hear our words and what we cannot even express in words.

We pray for the troubled and tormented peoples in our world, suffering from floods, droughts, hurricanes, unemployment, military threats and fears. We pray for the leaders of the nations, President of Yemen, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi; President of Zambia, Edgar Lungu; and President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. Please establish peace, judicial integrity, economic stability, and healthy recovery in all lands, for the good of all, so that the Gospel of Jesus may spread unchecked, and that your Church may dwell in peace and quietness. Guide our own national and State leaders away from envy, greed, power-mongering, and injustice toward legitimate fairness, moral integrity, and contentment with what is good in your sight.

Give ear to our concerns as we pray for those who are still in their unbelief and for those who have deserted the Christian Faith….may they turn around and believe in your Son Jesus Christ, and have everlasting life.

For your Church in all places, this congregation, the Baptist Temple; Bethel Baptist; Bethlehem Primitive Baptist; and Bethlehem Star Baptist churches; we pray. Strengthen our resolve to glorify you and enjoy you in knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. Please hold us back from following harmful paths, and prosper us in walking in the light as you are in the light. Help us to love our enemies, forgiving those who have wronged us, as you loved us and reconciled us to yourself when we were your enemies.

Almighty God, whose joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8.10), whose kingdom is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14.17), and whose love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5.6); we pray for ourselves, our immediate and extended families, and for one another. May your Spirit wash over us with joy, so that righteousness may flourish in our homes and callings and peace thrive always and in all ways. May your Spirit make your love for us, to us, and in us more real than ever. 

Finally, LORD God, the Almighty, who gives power to the faint, and to the one who has no might you increase strength. Even though youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; yet those who wait for you, O LORD, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. O God, for those sick or sore we pray…, for those weak or weary we pray …, for those beaten or bruised we pray …, for those limp or lifeless we pray …, we implore you to lift them up on eagle’s wings; renew their strength; rouse them with renewed hope and life to run and not be weary, to walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40.29-31). Amen.

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