"Hosanna in the Highest!" - 2 April 2023

 

Our Father, who has told us to cast our burden on you and promised that you will sustain us, and that you shall never permit the righteous to be shaken (Psalm 55:22); we confidently lift up to you our petitions and supplications, Hosanna in the highest!

We remember those who find themselves fraught with specific hardships, fears, worries and perplexities, and others who have been fractured by these adversities (…). Raise them up in new-found hope; comforting, healing, restoring, and defending them where most needed; Hosanna in the highest!

Guide the nations of the earth, these United States of America, Liberia, Libya, and Liechtenstein, in the practices that foster peace and tranquility, and in proper ways so that all may prosper and your people may be safe. We pray for the greater Oklahoma City region that you would be pleased to grant us to thrive economically, educationally, artistically and ethically. Hosanna in the highest!

Further, we pray that you would be with those in our neighborhoods where we live, on Lori Lane, Lakeview Ct., Winning Colors Dr., Capri Court, Willow Grove Rd., Sunflower Dr., Patterson Dr., Kenwood Ct., and Valley Ct., just to name a few. Please turn our suburbs and subdivisions into real neighborhoods and communities of caring people who treat one another with respect, interest, kindness, and friendliness and will look out for each other’s best interests. Hosanna in the highest!

O Lord, we pray for your Church in all places, for this congregation, Greater Cleaves Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Springdale Alliance, Bethany Church of Christ and Boulevard Church of Christ. Strengthen what is true, good, wholesome, and right among us, and guide us away from what is harmful and false. Hosanna in the highest!

We implore you to change the hearts and dispositions of our enemies that kindness and civility might reign; and grant them new hearts to love you and be drawn into your family through Christ. Hosanna in the highest!

We plead for your sovereign grace to grip the hearts and minds of many, to bring some to salvation and to bring others to restoration (…). Hosanna in the highest!

We are saddened by the violence of this past week at the school of our sister church in Nashville. Dear God, who is afflicted in the affliction of your people, have mercy. Give hope and sustaining strength. And Lord, it is grievous how our media overreports these shootings making it feel like they are happening every day, in every city, in every state, feeding the monster of fear. How their focus makes the shooters famous. Lord, let us not surrender to fear, to react in fear. And give our broadcasters and news editors the soberminded sense to see how they are often fueling the next murder-suicide shooting. Hosanna in the highest!

Finally, Lord, we thank you for your generous goodness to us. Hosanna in the highest! And now we pray as Jesus taught us, saying Our Father…

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