Prayer: Our Father, how grateful we are that we have been drawn to your presence and can commune with you. Through the work of your beloved Son, we have access to your throne room where your glory dwells and where you listen to the cries of your people. Though we are creatures of dust, we can cry out to you and beg you to incline your ear to us with complete confidence that you will hear and respond to your children’s miserable estate and concerns. We acknowledge that we are poor and needy people who need your grace to sustain us through our day. We confess that we often fail to plead with you when the storms of this life settle in around us. We are forgetful. Thus, we run to worry and anxiety instead of the safety found in your presence alone. May we, like the psalmist, beg you to save us because you are our God. Therefore, our Father, forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Be gracious to us, O Lord, and make our hearts glad in your faithfulness and compassion. Please remember us for good, bless us with your kindness this day, and help us serve you with joy and delight for all that you do for us.
We pray for many who are languishing under the burdens of this life and ask that you would remember them and bless them. We pray for the condition of our nation and the world and ask that you would be pleased to send a great revival across our lands. We pray for your church, asking that you cleanse her, purify her, and make her as holy as possible. May she seek first your kingdom and righteousness, and may it be a faithful testimony in a dark and decaying world. We pray for the advance of your kingdom through the preaching of your most holy Word, asking that you would bless those men, called by your Spirit, as they labor in your Word each day. Please strengthen them and help them as some of them are hurting. Indeed, some of them have been severely wounded in the battle for the souls of men. Please be kind to them. Please help your sheep as they walk the road you have prepared for them, which is sometimes full of danger and distraction. Please remember your promise to them and never leave them or forsake them. These things we pray before the God who knows, hears, and will do all things well through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Scripture Meditation: Ps. 86:1-5; 1 Jn. 1:9; Matt. 6:33; Ps. 23; 2 Tim. 4:1-5