Vespers - 25 November 2018

Lord, your servant, our brother Paul, told us “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4.2). Therefore, we continue to devote our selves to prayer, always looking for ways to give thanks.

We pray for this upcoming Advent and Christmas season. Lord Jesus, thank you that you have promised that when you were lifted up from the earth, you would draw all people to yourself (John 12.32). Thank you that you drew us and many whom we know. Thank you for faithful preachers, Sunday School teachers, parents, grandparents, friends and co-workers who announced the Gospel to us. We ask that you would draw the wayward and willful; the wrecked and ruined; the prosperous and those in penury; Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, Secularists, Agnostics, Atheists, the “Don’t Cares” and “Could Care Lesses.”As the carols are playing on radios, music apps, store-speakers, and in our heads; we pray that the Gospel will seep through the barriers and bulwarks people have set up around their hearts and homes, and that many will come to embrace you as you are freely offered in the Gospel. We pray especially for those on our hearts who have strayed away, and those who have never believed…And do help us to be brave and ready to explain the Gospel to others. O Lord, hear our prayer.

We again pray for this upcoming Advent and Christmas season. Since this is the time of year when families get together more often, rubbing shoulders with one another; we thank you for our families, for the good relationships that we have with some, and for the support we have received in our families. Please help us to sensibly navigate the tricky stuff, to be gracious with one another rather than critical or immediately jumping to derogatory conclusions, and to be generous and liberal with love and kindness. We pray specifically for these get-togethers and family conversations that we know will be happening soon… O Lord, hear our prayer. 

We pray once more for this upcoming Advent and Christmas season. As this is the time when there are more financial outlays than normal, it reminds us to give you thanks for how you have taken care of us, and given us all things richly to enjoy. Help us to be rich in good works, to be happily openhanded toward those who are truly in need, to share our food and family and fun with those who will be alone, or recently widowed. We pray particularly for these people and situations that come to mind… O Lord, hear our prayer.