Prayers Drawn from Micah for Vespers - 26 January 2020

Ah, LORD God, you once spoke through your servant Micah about the popular prophets, and how they lead your people astray, crying ““Peace” when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God” (Micah 3:5-7). We pray for those who pervert and twist your truth for their own gain and greed, adulation and advantage (…). Grant them repentance, that they may escape the snare of the devil. Grant them to see what they are and what they’re doing, and how it is blaspheming your name among the unbelievers. And if they will not turn, bring their councils to nothing. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Further, LORD, you promised in Micah that your Son would be born in Bethlehem, and that he would stand and shepherd his flock “in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace” (Micah 5:4-5). And so, we pray, that he would securely shepherd us, fostering even greater peace in us, among us, and through us. And by his leadership and liberation may his name go forth from us and be great to the ends of the earth. We do ask you to open up opportunities for each of us to present the Gospel of our great Shepherd, and that we may enjoy seeing new believers come into this church, 12 household baptisms even, please! And may this congregation continue to flourish with the growth you have been giving us. May many belong and believe with us as together we mature in truth, worship and Christian love. O Lord, hear our prayer. 


Finally, again as you promised in Micah that you would establish your Church on a high hill, to which the nations would flow to hear you, and from which they would go, like leopards and wolves lying down with lambs, beating their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks (Micah 4:1-4). May your Church not only be the place where people meet and hear from you, but may your Church lead the way to peace among the nations by being a people of peace. Where Hatfields and McCoys, Shias and Sunnis, Hutus and Tutsis can actually worship together and love one another; where Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs, Crips and Bloods can lay down their arms and embrace one another because of Jesus, turning from bloodletting to believing together. O Lord, hear our prayer.

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

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
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