Father,
We come to you this morning, longing to be refreshed. We know that you are the fountainhead of
joy. Your Word says that in your
presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures
forevermore.
Jesus, some of us this morning come before you with heavy
hearts, with difficult things happening at work, or at home. Some of us come before you this morning in
spite of deep struggles against sin.
Others of us come with burdens and pressure placed upon us by others,
demands that we know we can’t meet.
Jesus, you said, “come to me all you are burdened, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light.” This
morning Jesus, we come to you asking for rest.
We ask for joy to be poured into our hearts, and for our burdens to be
lifted.
Jesus we depend upon you to be in right relationship to the
Father. There is no other way we can
stand in his presence without you. Our
sin is darker and deeper than we realize, but your grace is greater than we can
imagine. We depend upon your
righteousness to cover us. God thank you
for taking on human flesh, living the life we should have lived, and dying the death
we deserved to die. Jesus, we praise you
because of what you have done.
And now Father, we come to under the righteousness of the Son. We come to ask for fullness of joy
overflowing by the Spirit. Fill us with
faith to believe and encourage our hearts.
Father, we ask first this morning, that the proclamation of
your Word would be edifying and accurate.
Make our hearts soft and sensitive to your words. We know that your they are life to us.
Also, we pray for all of the GABC staff, that you would be
revealing yourself to them in ways that will fill them with joy and humility in
your presence. Give them a genuine love
for your people that is not based on whether they are treated rightly or
whether they are liked appropriately, but based on the calling that you have
placed on their lives to be shepherds of your flock, bought by your blood.
Father, in our congregation there are those who have ailing
parents. This brings all kinds of
challenges. You say, that we can cast
all our cares upon you. Father, hear our
prayers, and take our cares. We trust
you to always do what is right. We are
grateful for the opportunity to provide love and care to the parents who spent
years caring for us. We want to provide
a return for our parents, as it says in 1 Timothy. Fill us with the type of compassion and mercy
that Jesus would have if he were physically present. And God let it not be begrudging, or guilty,
but help us to see the joyful opportunity available to us.
Father, we also pray for those outside of our
congregation. We pray for the success of
other churches like Friendship Baptist, that you would give the same comfort
and encouragement that we are asking you for.
But even more than that, we pray for a gospel centered mobilization of
people who will bring glory to your name in this city.
And we pray for the city of Ames and the surrounding areas,
the place in which you have planted us.
Teach us what it means to be salt and light here. Show us the opportunities for ministry and
gospel growth. Give us courage as we
have opportunities to love our neighbors, pray for our enemies, and share the
gospel. We desire for your kingdom to be
advanced in the world because your placement of us here. We want to be part of your mission on the
earth to spread your glory to the ends of the earth and to gather a people from
every tribe, tongue, race, and language.
And God we pray for our missionaries. We pray for their protection, body, mind, and
spirit. But even more than protection,
we pray what no doubt they are asking you for, that they would be used for the
proclamation of the gospel, and the advancement of your kingdom. Father, hear their request! Awaken hearts of people in mass, and send
workers to the field. Even people in
this congregation today, we lay before you our lives and say, send us. Take some of the people from this body, and
use them as seeds for the gospel to grow in other places.
Father, lastly, we are always longing for the end of things,
when the Son will come and finally make all things new, making all the sad
things come untrue. Every pain and
suffering we face reminds us of our living in a broken world. We are ready for it to be made new, and we
know that you are the one to do it. So
Lord Jesus, come quickly. Bring us our
final rest, renew all creation, and be finally glorified in all the earth.
In Jesus name,
Amen
