"Your Name, O LORD" - 5 April 2020



Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages. For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses (Psalm 135:13, 5-7). We rejoice in your might and goodness and ask you to attend to our prayers as we seek your face and intercede on behalf of your Church and world.

We lift up our hands, hearts and heads to you, Mighty God, for hearing and answering our prayers, for sustaining us day-in-and-day-out, and for the gift of a new day. Glory to you, Mighty Lord! Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.

We pray for this congregation, for these churches: Edmond Connect UMC; Epworth UMC; Grace UMC; and Hillcrest UMC; and we pray for your Church world over. As a Master Gardner skillfully weeds, waters and works his garden to make it healthy, lush and bountiful; do so with your Church that all may know it is “God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.

We pray for the leaders of states and nations. Show them better ways to govern and give them hearts and minds to govern better. Safeguard them from evil and enlarge in them ways and means for safeguarding those under their care, most especially in the present emergency. Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.

We pray for all nations and our own country. May we be led rightly in the ways of justice and peace, showing respect for one another and serving the common good. Preserve us from ruffians, saboteurs and assassins who come under the façade of white flags or under the guise of refugees. Preserve us from the most debilitating and destructive effects of this pandemic and grant us speedy recovery, in our own persons, our families, our communities, and our economies. Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.

We pray for friends, family members, and foes to hear and heed Jesus “proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”” (Mark 1:14-15). Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.

We pray for friends, family members and foes afflicted with emotional troubles (…), financial predicaments (…), marital breakdowns (…), family distresses (…), vocational crises (…), physical sufferings (…), and bodily weaknesses (…). May they know your comfort, be restored, and rise up with a new lease on life joyfully praising you now and ever. Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.

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