"O God our Father..." - 20 February 2022


 O God our Father, we implore you to make us a holy, joy-filled people in our homes, occupations, and our various networks of friends. May those who are married be free of strife, pettiness, and fear; may those who are single be chaste and holy, enjoying you in their God-ward singleness; may the children grow stronger in grace and wisdom, loving you all their days while obeying and honoring their parents; may the parents raise their children in faithfulness and godliness; and may the elderly flourish in God-given strength, patience, and sound-mindedness. Also please help us to be the kind of church that is instrumental in drawing the straying back to Christ and his church and bringing unbelievers to be born again by trusting in your Son Jesus Christ. Hear us as we recall some of their names to you (…).

O God our Father, we pray for your Church in all nations, and these churches in the OKC area: Crossroads of Life Church, Eastern Ave Baptist Church, Eastwood Baptist and Emmanuel Baptist. Grant your Church to live out the righteousness, peace and joy which are in the Holy Spirit; to pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding (Romans 14:17, 19); and to turn neither to the right hand or the left. And where she has jumped the tracks and derailed, reorient her course, and send her in the right direction once more.

O Lord God, please strengthen, assist, build up and give a renewed buoyancy to those in need (…).

O Lord God, please be with our nation, national leaders, and State and city leaders. Graciously help us to recognize when we do evil and injustice, to amend our ways and correct our directions. May neither peace nor prosperity blind our eyes or deafen our ears to you, or to the cries of those being unfairly treated. Grant us to sustain and support justice and liberty for all, unborn, foreign born, or home born.

O Lord God, please be with all world leaders and countries. We pray for an end to all wars, to all natural or man-made famines, pestilences, droughts, plagues. We pray for an end to abortion in our land and world over, and an end to the crimes of slave trafficking and prostituting men, women, and children. In this regard, and based on your words to us, we make bold to pray for MS-13, ISIS, Boko-Haram, the Lord’s Resistance Army, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Aryan Nations, and other destructive alliances. Bring them to repentance and faith in Christ – individually and personally, but also as a whole. And if they will not, then Lord, we pray on behalf of those crushed under their jackbooted thuggery, and we pray with the Psalmist, “O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD! Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted. Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun” (Psalm 58:6-8).

O Lord God, we ask all this because you are good. And we ask all this in Christ’s name. And we pray as we have been taught, saying, Our Father…

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