"O Director of Our Steps" - 5 January 2020



Almighty God, though a man’s heart plans his ways, it is you who directs his steps (Proverbs 16.9); therefore, we pray – O director of our steps – for this world and your church.

Lord God, as we plan our ways for this year, guide us inch-by-inch and mile-by-mile. May our confidence in you increase throughout 2020. May we come to know you more than ever before, love you more deeply than we have in the past, and serve you with greater enjoyment and enthusiasm. May we have eyes to see you doing great things – even in the modest and mundane moments. May we have hearts and voices ready to rejoice in your great goodness, even if the wind gets kicked out of us. May we be known as a people who enjoy making much of you!

We ask you to alleviate the suffering, angst and fretfulness of those who are in dire need of your healing or help … Please restore them by filling them with your unsurpassable peace to guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and give them rock-hard reasons to have hope in you through all their trials and troubles.

Please look upon our nation, national leadership, and our Oklahoma State Senators, Legislators and Judiciary. Maintain our liberties and guide us all along the path of your truth and righteousness. Protect and preserve our Military members, esp. those in Iraq, those deployed in support of the Embassy there, and those stationed in the region. Also, for the nations of our world and the leaders of the nations, we pray. For the glory of your Name, the good of your Church and wellbeing of all, please reinstate peace, order and sensibility where there is only war and chaos; and build strong justice and hope in the more stable countries.

God, who not only created all things by the word of your power, but cares for creation, and tends it: Please pour out fertility and fruitfulness upon our soil, forests, seas and frontiers that we may enjoy the bounty of your earth, as we join with you in tending and caring for creation.

O Lord, we pray for your Church in all places, for this congregation, Southgate Pentecostal Church, Lighthouse Lutheran, Peace Lutheran, and St. John’s Lutheran Church. Help us all that we may truly be a people saturated and flourishing in your graciousness, loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, eschewing evil and error in our congregations and out in our communities, and living as your special people zealous for good works.

Finally, we plead for the salvation, transformation and rescue of those who have never believed in your Son and turned from their sins and the restoration of those who have strayed away from you... All of these requests we have mentioned, and those that have remained silent on our hearts, we ask in the name of – and by the authority of – Jesus Christ, your Son and our Saving Lord. Amen.

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