Evening Prayer

God our Father, glorious in giving life, and even more glorious in restoring it, when his last night on earth came, your Son shed tears of blood, but dawn brought incomparable gladness. Do not turn away from us, or we shall fall back into dust, but rather turn our mourning into joy by raising us up with Christ.

Morning Prayer

Father, the body of your risen Son is the temple not made by human hands and the defending wall of the new Jerusalem. May this holy city, built of living stones, shine with spiritual radiance and witness to your greatness in the sight of all nations.

Ant. The Lord is great and worthy to be praised in the city of our God.

 

On Prayer

Prayer is intensely political because it is supplication offered before the throne of grace. We may be excluded from places of political power on earth. We may not hold prominent positions in government. We may not be cabinet members, with access to the oval office, but we have something better than all these things. We are bride of Christ. And if Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, then that makes the church Queen of queens. We have power in the world because our divine husband, the one who rules over all things in heaven and earth, consults with us and hears us. As a good husband, he listens to his bride.

–Rich Lusk, Observations on Psalm 98

A Prayer for Peace

Almighty and Everlasting Father, you have sent Your only, unique Son to redeem your Bride, the Church; and you have promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against it, we pray that you watch over your Body; keep it and preserve it in the unity of peace. Amen.

Exhortation: Providence Church, Pray with Your Eyes Open, Part II

Exhortation, Part I

Call to Worship:

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

Salutation:   Pastor: In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

People: Amen!

The Lord be with you!                             Ruth 2:4

And also with you!

Our help is in the Name of Yahweh,       Psalm 124:8

Who made heaven and earth!

Exhortation:

In our exhortation last week I spoke that God takes joy in engaging His people in prayer. We saw that Moses boldly came to God in prayer and He told God that He should remember His love for his elect people, remember His glory among the nations, and finally remember His promises in His word.

On this Lord’s Day, I would like to speak briefly on the attitude of prayer. We know that prayer is significant. The New Covenant calls us to come boldly with our petitions to the throne of grace and James says that the prayers of the righteous are effective.

My exhortation this morning is to bathe our petitions in thanksgiving for what God has done. We do not simply pray because God tells us to. This is one reason, but it is hardly the main source of encouragement for prayer. We pray because God hears us, engages us and delights in our thanksgiving.

We need to turn our prayers into a time of engagement with God. We need to let God know the depths of our thoughts and sometimes it is very effective to write it down…God calls us to be specific.

Briefly, let me draw our attention to Psalm 34 because it illustrates exactly this idea of bathing our petitions in thanksgiving. We all know this morning that being thankful is not something that comes naturally. We need to train ourselves, just as we need to train our little ones to be thankful. Psalm 34 says that we are to continually make thanksgiving unto God a part of our speech. Think about it, when you find out something wonderful has happened in your life, what is your first reaction? Is it to keep it to yourself or is it to pick up your phone and share it with family and friends?  Of course, we desire to share the good news with others, but when it comes to religious matters, we all think it is pious to tell anyone the goodness of God lest anyone think we are a fanatic. Continue reading “Exhortation: Providence Church, Pray with Your Eyes Open, Part II”

Exhortation: Providence Church, Pray with Your Eyes Open, Part I

Call to Worship:

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

Salutation:   Pastor: In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

People: Amen!

The Lord be with you!                             Ruth 2:4

And also with you!

Our help is in the Name of Yahweh,       Psalm 124:8

Who made heaven and earth!

Exhortation:

I would like to begin this week and the next two Lord’s Days with exhortations on the topic of prayer.

Richard Pratt in his wonderful book Pray With Your Eyes Open calls the Christian Church to defend our petitions before God on the basis of God’s promises. If there is one thing this morning that we are all guilty of is the fact that we do not pray enough. You may feel like you pray as much as you get around, but do you feel that your prayer for your children is consistent with your love for your children? How about your prayer for you espouse? How about your prayer for your Church?

One of the most foolish arguments I have ever heard against the Reformed faith is the argument that “If God is in control of everything then why do I need to pray?” Now I do not deny that perhaps some in the Reformed faith fall for this type of thinking, but the reality is that the Bible’s view is that God is in control and that is precisely why you pray. Our belief in God’s sovereignty ought to encourage us to pray.

I want to stress that the God of Scriptures is not an emotionless, unmoved Mover. Rather He is fully engaging and willing to interact with His chosen people in prayer and he calls us to do this over and over.

We see a clear example of this in Exodus 32. Moses is up on the mountains and the people are at the foot of the mountain dancing, drinking uncontrollably, singing and feasting to a false God.  Yahweh is ready to wipe them out and then Moses jumps in the picture.

What does Moses do? Moses pleads with God so that God will not destroy the nation of Israel. Moses is engaged with God and seeks to convince God for what he is looking for and what He wants. Brothers and Sisters, we do not believe in fatalism, we believe in Providence and providence is relational.

Moses comes to God and asks God not to destroy Israel on the basis of His promises. What are these promises?

a)      First, Moses appeals to God on the basis of His love for the people of Israel. Moses’ prayer was: “Lord this is your people; the apple of your eye. Do not destroy them.”

b)      Secondly, Moses says that if God destroys the Israelites, then the Egyptians will laugh at God’s people. And when the enemies laugh at God’s people, God is not glorified as He should.

c)      Finally, Moses appeals unto God on the basis of His promise to multiply the seed of Abraham. Moses says in essence, “ Yahweh, what about your plans to make the nations your inheritance. What about your plans to fulfill your Word? Those people at the foot of the mountain, they are Abraham’s seed. Preserve them, O God!”

What does God do? Does He wipe Moses out for being so bold? No! The answer to this prayer is that God relented from the disaster He had spoken and did not destroy the people of Israel. God’s response was “Moses, you understand my Word!”

For us this morning, when was the last time we prayed on the basis of God’s promises to love the people of God, to not be mocked by wicked nations and to fill the earth with His glory? What if we began praying not by giving God a list, but by reminding God of His covenant promises? What if our prayers were like the rainbow after the flood, which served as a perpetual reminder unto God that He will never destroy the earth? What if we prayed with Biblical eyes? Let us Pray.

Prayer: Our Father and our God, remember your love for us, O Lord. You have promised to care for us. Remember your glory, O Lord. Let not Your enemies mock your people, but rather give victory to your Church. And remember, O Lord to fulfill your promises to multiply the seed of Abraham through your beloved Son. Remember and bring to pass Your will on earth as it is in Heaven.

Confession of Sin (The congregation is invited to kneel if able)

Unison: Most merciful God, we confess to you that we are by nature sinful and unclean, and that we are most miserably helpless before our adversaries. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed; not only in outward transgressions, but also in secret thoughts and desires that we are not able to understand, but which are all known to you. For these reasons, we flee for refuge to your infinite mercy, seeking and imploring forgiveness and deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Silent Prayer.

Quote, Praying Biblically

God’s readiness to hear and willingness to grant His people’s prayers are continually proclaimed throughout Scripture (Ps. 9:10; 10:17-18; 18:3; 34:15-17; 37:4-5; 50:14-15; 145:18-19).  God has given us numerous examples of imprecatory prayers, showing repeatedly that one aspect of a godly man’s attitude is hatred for God’s enemies and fervent prayer for their downfall and destruction (Ps. 5:10; 10:15; 35:1-8, 22-26; 59:12-13; 68:1-4; 69:22-28; 83; 94; 109; 137:8-9; 139:19-24; 140:6-11).  Why then do we not see the overthrow of the wicked in our own time?  An important part of the answer is the unwillingness of the modern Church to pray Biblically; and God has assured us: You do not have because you do not ask (James 4:2).  —David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance, p. 250.

{HT: John Barach}

4th of July Prayer

I waited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and heard my cry.

Our Gracious, Merciful and Glorious God: Father, Son and Spirit: The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness of it. All Glory belongs to You in heaven and on earth. We praise you for your wondrous deeds and for the salvation You have granted unto us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We delight in the goodness of Your provision. You give water to the thirsty and food to the hungry, and even prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies. We express our absolute dependence on your good gifts. Apart from You we would be lost and purposeless beings, but with You there is fullness of joy. Your Kingdom, O Lord, is an everlasting kingdom. It is a kingdom of glory and victory. May we have faith to see Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

God of Creation, we delight in this period of history. We celebrate the good gifts that You have given unto this nation. May we acknowledge your mercies to these United States. We thank you for the beginning of this nation, its Christian legacy that has long been forgotten in our day. Yet, we praise you for preserving our liberties to adore you Father, Son and Spirit. And we pray that you would bring liberty to other nations around the world. May we remember that we are not at liberty to forsake Your word, but we are liberty to live by Your Word.

O Lord, despite the atrocities committed by this nation, in particular towards the unborn, we pray that You would heal this land and forgive us our sins. Cleanse and crush the gods of our imagination. Forgive us for our empty rhetoric. Forgive us for equating love for God for love of a party. Forgive us for equating this country’s agenda with the kingdom’s agenda. Lord, we know that we are far from pursuing the kingdom’s agenda in this nation.

Yet, we pray that you restore this land. Turn President Obama’s heart unto You for you tell us that You can turn the hearts of rulers.

Rule in the hearts of our leaders. May they rest in You even when it is not popular or convenient. May they lose their jobs for Your sake if necessary, so You may be exalted above their careers and reputation.

Take us from a nation of idolaters to a nation of worshipers.

Do not forsake us, O Lord, but be with us. Though we have a glorious past, we do not want to look to the past, but we want to look to the future. We cannot re-live the past, but we can seek your guidance for the future.

We ask that Your justice would prevail. Do not forsake us, O Lord, for we Your people cry for the manifestation of Your Mighty Hand in our midst. Restore us that we may be saved, and unite us ever more to the King of the world, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray in this manner:

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen.

Prayers and Politics

In a recent panel discussion with Darryl Hart and Michael Horton, Peter Leithart argued persuasively for a liturgy that includes politics. The prayers of the saints are inherently political. When we pray the Psalms, we pray that God would act on our behalf and defend us from our enemies. When we pray for kings and other leaders, we are bringing the secular into the sacred. These prayers, in turn, shape our understanding of politics. We pray not only as sojourners, but also as rulers of the earth. We pray not only for the world to come, but for the transformation of this present world.

A Prayer of Confession and Thanksgiving

Psalm 147:2-3

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.

He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.

Confession:

Almighty God,

You are the builder of Your church. Unless you build the house, our labors are in vain. We trust in Your sovereign goodness to uplift Your body by your grace. We, the hands and feet of this glorious body long to be in Your presence, yet we are weak. We have sinned against you, not only outwardly, but much more with inward blindness, unbelief, doubts, impatience, pride, covetousness, envy, hatred, malice, and other sinful affections, as you, my Lord and God, know well. Lord, we have gone after other gods, as we have sought money more than you, as we have sought worldly wisdom more than your Holy Word, we have sought arrogance rather than humility. Lord, accept now our private confessions as we pray.

Silence.

Thanksgiving:

Our Gracious Lord,

You have opened Your arms to us, as the Father of the prodigal opened His arms to receive His own. Now, you feed us as a great host. Our sins are forgiven through the death of your Son. Grant us never to lose sight of sin, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, and the exceeding wonder of grace.

Pastor: This is our prayer, O Lord.  People: Amen.