"Give Ear to My Please of Mercy" - 16 May 2021

 

(This congregational prayer is taken and shaped out of Psalm 143)

Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. There are many, Lord, who have been beat down and beat up. We pray for and with those who have been battered and brutalized, some whom we name silently before you (…). May they find shelter and refuge; bring them help and healing. And enrich those who hold out their hands to provide support and sanctuary, especially the YWCA Women’s Shelter, Jesus House, City Rescue Mission, the Wonderfully Made Foundation, and others. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you.

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah. We implore your loving care, intervention, and saving help in the lives of those we love and know who have turned their backs to you (…); those who sit in darkness and dwell in the region and shadow of death (…); those who are in utter despair (…); those thinking dark and deadly thoughts and are on the verge of acting on them (…); save them, O Lord! And give us the opportunities and abilities to reach them with your care, mercy, and Gospel. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you.

Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! Lord Jesus, remember your Church, this congregation, and Council Rd. Baptist Church, Covenant Life Church, Crossover Church, and Crossroads Church. May we find our rest in you, our strength and hope. Guide us in the way we should go. May your Spirit move on her and direct her, your Scriptures guide her, and your Son rule her so that we will firmly hold to the moral standards you have established for our good.  Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you.

For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant (Psalm 143). And so, we pray for our own nation! How we continue to make a mess of things, Lord! Forgive our country and our leaders for trying to overthrow decency and morality, attempting to rewrite your criterion for marriage, which we have been doing since at least the 1940s with the shocking rise of divorce, the free-love crusades of the 1960s, the promiscuity of the 1970s and 80s to the present! Grant this nation to come to its senses, recognize its follies, and return to healthy principles of right and wrong. Preserve and protect us from all enemies foreign and domestic. And take care of the nations of the world, especially where there is bloody, brutalizing conflict or decimating poverty. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you!

All we ask in union with Jesus Christ your Son, and our Lord and Savior, as we pray together what he taught us, saying; Our Father…


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Union with Christ - An Application

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."