"O Eternal God, Through Whose Mighty Power..." - 3 July 2022

 O Eternal God, through whose mighty power our fathers won their liberties over two centuries ago; grant, please, that we and all the inhabitants of this land may have grace to maintain those liberties in righteousness and peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank you, Lord, for these United States of America. Thank you that as the decades and centuries rolled on, we endeavored to become more and more consistent with our founding documents and principles. We rejoice in the ways our ancestors acted on the self-evident truths “that all men are created equal” and finally, after conflicts aplenty, secured the standing of black slaves, Native Americans, and immigrants.  And so, affirming “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” our forebears hammered out these rights for all living. Further, once more, we are thankful for how this all was recently expanded to include not only the foreign born and the freeborn, but now the unborn.

We ask you to over-rule the brutal savagery raging in many nations, including the legitimization of slavery, prostitution, and the harassment of your Church. We affirm with Scripture that the hearts of national leaders are like streams of water in your hand, O LORD, and that you turn them wherever you will. Turn them Father, and may all nations come to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus, and peace and prosperity prevail in all places.

O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need: We humbly beseech you to behold, visit and relieve these (…). Look upon them with the eyes of your mercy; comfort them with a sense of your goodness; preserve them from the temptations of the enemy; and give them patience under their affliction. In your good time, restore them to health, and enable them to lead the residue of their life in your fear, and to your glory; and grant that finally they may dwell with you in life everlasting.

Almighty God, we pray for your Church worldwide, including Sunray Baptist, Tabernacle, Tabitha, and Trinity Baptist Church. Grant us all grace fearlessly to live in peace with all men, and holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). May your Word run swiftly and be glorified, and your people be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2). Preserve your church from the corrosiveness of doctrinal infidelity and the corruption of heresy; and in those areas where she has already completely missed the mark, recover her.

Lord Jesus Christ, who embraces children with the arms of your mercy, and makes them living members of your Church; give our children and grandchildren grace, we pray, to stand fast in your faith, to obey your word, and to abide in your love; that, being made strong by your Holy Spirit, they may resist temptation, overcome evil, rejoice in the life that now is, and dwell with you in the life that is to come. 

Finally, show your kindness and deploy your saving love to these who have never turned to Christ and those who have turned away from Christ (…). All we ask by the encouragement and in the authority of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And now we pray as we have been taught, saying, Our Father…