"O LORD, You are My God" - 14 June 2020

“O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure” (Isaiah 25.1). On behalf of your Church throughout the world, for this congregation, and Village UMC, Wesley UMC, Calvary MBC and Fairview MBC, we pray. For those of your people who are suffering for righteousness sake, show yourself strong on their behalf. Those who have lost their way and exchanged your glory for their own rapaciousness or their own reputation, reclaim them. Those who are working and toiling, spending and being spent for your honor, fill up what is lacking and cause your work to prosper in their hands. Finally, for the Presbyterian Church in America, we pray that the righteousness, peace and joy of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13) would hover over our denomination, the honor Christ reign supreme and the fellowship of Christ flourish.

Holy God, send forth your Gospel and your enlivening Spirit, so that Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Western Secularists may come to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ. And save these for whom we now pray (…).

Look upon the President of these United States, the Governor of Oklahoma, our Representatives, and all others in authority. Remind them that they lead and rule at your pleasure and by your permission. Remind them that they govern for the common good of all people in our land, not one group above another. Remind them that their leadership is supposed to reflect your justice and righteousness. Yes, remind them and direct them. Be pleased to grant our nation social, educational, and economic recovery. May every inhabitant of our land make considerable progress in honorable, upright lives, relationships, vocations, education, and families. And, as our black friends and neighbors celebrate Juneteenth this week, may we enter into their joy, rejoicing in emancipation, and work with them to make true liberty more consistent and substantial.

With all the instability, insatiability, acerbity, and Insufficiency in this world, we ask you to guide the nations of the earth into the way of justice and truth, establishing among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, and bring them to love you and their neighbors.

Merciful Father, you have taught us in your Holy Word, that you do not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men: look with kindness upon the sorrows and needs of these for whom our prayers are offered (…). Remember them in mercy, nourish their souls with patience, comfort them with a sense of your goodness, lift up your countenance upon them, and give them peace and wholeness.

We commend to your gracious care all those in the armed forces, whether at home or abroad (…). Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be. And preserve our LEOs and all first responders in these days.

O God, all of our spoken and unspoken requests we present to you in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, and our Lord. Amen