Pastoral Prayer (1/18/21)

Almighty God,

We lift up our hearts to you this morning, and we lift them up in praise and adoration to our Refuge and Strength. 

You are our rock and our fortress and our deliverer. 

We praise you, O God, because you are the only living and true God. 

You are infinite in being and perfection. 

You alone have immortality, dwelling in light that no one can approach. 

You are unchangeable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, perfectly holy, perfectly wise, free and absolute. 

We praise you because you work all things according to the counsel of your own unchangeable and completely righteous will for your own glory. 

You are full of love, grace, mercy, and patience towards us, and you overflow with goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgressions, and sin. 

Eternal worship, service, and obedience is owed to you from all your creation, O Lord our God.

Father, you command us to humble ourselves under your mighty hand and bring our cares and anxieties before you, because you care for us. And we bring these cares to your throne now trusting that you will answer them in your timing and according to your will. 

Salvation of All Men

O God, we pray as you have instructed for the salvation of all men. We appeal to you according to your steadfast love and faithfulness, that you would gather in all those for whom Christ has died. Let the preaching of your gospel and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord spread over the earth as the waters cover the sea. Let men see a great light, and may hearts be changed as the Spirit of Christ sovereignly overcomes their resistance to the triune God. Do this, we pray, to the praise of your glorious grace. May the love of the Father, the redemption of the Son, and the effectual work of the Spirit be glorified as you alone rescue sinners. May we see baptisms in our churches as sinners come to make a profession of their faith in Jesus. We pray, O God of grace, that you would give us conversions. Let our children be saved by grace, and may Marengo, OH be won by the gospel. We pray that you would hasten the day in which every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Sanctification of the Saints

We pray also for our church this morning. We pray that you would cause us to love and obey your word more and more. Produce in us deeper hatred for sin and a deeper love for our Savior. Cause our hearts to be revived by your Spirit week after week as we sit under the preaching of your word. Bless our preaching ministry, O Father. Help us to be a church, and to be known as a church, that reveres and honors the scriptures. Give us understanding according to your word, and keep us from error and bringing reproach upon our Lord. Give us your grace to pursue holiness together, and help us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 

Father, we give you thanks for giving to our church two people in particular, Donnie and Kathy. We give thanks to Christ for giving us Donnie as a gift to our church for the purpose of shepherding us, and equipping us for the work of the ministry, and for the building up of the body of Christ. We ask for more pastors like him. We ask for more godly men like him, and we pray that would continue to bless his ministry here. We also pray for Kathy, that you would have her joy in Christ spill out to the rest of us. Give her your grace as she pursues you and offers her life as a living sacrifice for your glory and for the joy of others. As we would have more godly men like Donnie, we would ask you for more godly women like Kathy. 

The Word

O Lord, our hearts echo the Psalmist when he says, “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” It is through your precepts that we gain understanding, so we ask for your guidance this morning as we now open your word. 

We pray all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen!