[Please join me in praying for the Church on Sundays.]
“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.”
(Revelation 3:2-3 NIV)
Perfect and Holy God, Mighty in Power, Tender in Mercy, and Righteous in Judgement,
We come to you today to pray for your Church in all peoples and places. Thank you for your calling to remember – to remember the physical slavery the Israelites were delivered from during the Exodus, and to remember the spiritual slavery we were delivered from at the Cross. Thank you for the bread and the cup in which we remember what you have done for us. We know we your people were dead in our transgressions and sins when we followed the ways of this world and the enemy of our souls. But your great love and rich mercy for us has made us alive with Christ. Thank you that it is by grace we have been saved, through faith—and this is a gift from you. Thank for this gift and for the calling to spread this Good News to others. We pray you would strengthen your people – your Church – to fulfill her mission to make not just converts, but disciples. We pray you would put within your Church a deep and abiding hunger for the Truth of Jesus Christ and she would hold fast to it, even as the ideas of the world seek to denigrate and destroy that Truth. We know that our work here on earth is unfinished, so we pray for courage, wisdom, strength, perseverance, peace, and joy as we go into the world to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you. May we proclaim your salvation, goodness, and mercy to the world until you return, Lord Jesus. Through the grace of Christ and the power of Holy Spirit we pray, Amen.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:1-10 NIV)
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do. Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.” (Exodus 12:14-17 NIV)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25 NIV)
“And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8 NIV)