Prayer

Prayer of the People, 9 April 2021

April 12, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for loving us and bringing us into your communion. You have not abandoned us to our unbelief. You have sent your Son to reveal your love to the world and to rescue us from our sins. Thank you for sending your Spirit to us and for stimulating faith in You when we heard the Gospel of your promises fulfilled. Now our hope is truly in you!

May our worship of you fill out our whole lives with the character of Jesus. May His gentleness and His humility create a reliable strength in your people so your faithful love permeates our fellowship and informs our service to each other and to our communities.

Lord, we are weary from the demands of the pandemic and our responsibilities. For some of us the daily press of decisions and the weight of social unease and absence is taking a toll. Help us Lord. Meet us again. Fortify us with your Spirit and help us persevere.

We lift up to you our brothers and sisters at The Point Church at Simon Fraser University. Thank you for their faithful witness to your love. Thank you for their love for each other and their desire to serve the community well. Encourage them Lord and build them up.

We lift up to you our campus community. Please bring healing and help to those who are facing illness and even home-sickness — as they feel the distance from the familiar and from loved ones. Bless those who are studying and preparing for exams: grant them delight in their studies. Ignite a growing curiosity about your Creation, what you are doing in it, and they can be a part of it with you.

We know we need you Lord and so we pray as Jesus teaches us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 9 April 2021

Prayer

Prayer of the People, 2 April 2021

April 6, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

In a year in which so many have felt alone in their losses and griefs we call out to you with the faith formed in the testimony of Easter. Christ is Risen!  

We ask that you would pour your love into us again through your Spirit so we may have hope. Remind us of Jesus’ victory over death and His victory over the alienation of the cross so we may rejoice in your salvation again. 

Praise the Lord. We praise you for this wonderful grace in which we stand.
Praise the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! We praise You — for all blessings flow from You.

Your triumph is our humble plea. 
Your songs are our resistance to despair.
Your communion is our circle of comfort.

Heal us Lord. Heal us of spiritual dullness.
Heal us of spiritual inertia.
Fill us — that we might love our neighbours boldly.
Fill us — that we might speak your Gospel boldly.

Grant to us the holy initiative that rises up in all your servants who say YES to You.

We lift up the dear people of Myanmar. Please bring a true peace to this land. Empower your church to witness through service and through winsome speech to the promises of your Kingdom. Oh Lord preserve lives from the evil one and grant the wisdom of restraint to those who govern and to those who have taken up arms. Comfort many who have lost loved ones in the violence. Comfort them and call them back from the trap created by vengeance. We ask for your intervention and plead that the life of our Resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ would bring healing to many.

We lift up our congregation and pray that you would show us how to keep the fire of love and devotion hot. May our love for you not grow cold. May our service to you and our neighbours be refreshing. We know we need you so we pray as you taught us:

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 2 April 2021.

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Prayer of the People, 26 March 2021

March 29, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

You have set eternity into the heart of every person. It seems like we are but a blip in time as we live together on the planet but may the reality of You, the everlasting Triune God, draw us ever closer and into your genuine love and joy.

Thank you for the grace of knowing you. Jesus set His face toward the City of Jerusalem knowing full well, the cross that awaited Him. But He set His heart toward You, knowing the joy that awaited His friends. We are His friends if we obey His Word.

You have invited us to come. And Lord, your words are not a burden. But we confess that apart from your Spirit we have no power on our own to create eternal fruit. So we come, Lord Jesus, we come.

When we set our hands and our minds to work may our hearts continue to abide with Your Spirit. When we suspend what we want in the moment in order to serve another may Your songs fill our heart. When we resist the evil one may Your love fill our spirits.

Father we cry out to you on behalf of people hoping, searching for a life with more security, peace, and opportunity. Many are fleeing heartache and oppressive violence and abuse. Yet, they are confounded by borders and those tending them. Oh Lord we know you see. But we do not always want to see desperation. Awaken in us the compassion of Jesus and move us according to your ways to be present with the poor as friends.

We cry Hosanna — help us Lord. Blessed be your name!

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 26 March 2021.

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Prayer of the People, 19 March 2021

March 22, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

You are Lord of lords and King of kings. No one in all Creation can thwart your plans and purposes. Whether we feel stuck in the past or insecure about the future, you are one who remains the same. You have been our refuge and you will be our refuge. Today, we abide in you and entrust our lives to you.

You have welcomed us through the life of Jesus Christ and the gracious gift of the Spirit into this grace in which we stand. Now we pray that your grace would work powerfully among us. 

Protect us from the evil one.
Forgive our hidden faults.
And let not wilful sin rule over us.

Revive us Lord! Transform us by your Word and empower us by your Spirit that we might maintain the peculiar distinctives of holiness into which you have called us. Fill us with wisdom that we might yet remain warm and present to each other in this anxious world. 

We lift up to you the people of Syria who have suffered dehumanizing atrocities and hate in the last ten years. We plead with you for peace and for the transformation of even on person who has become hard-hearted. Violence stalks its victims through the dark places and even in broad daylight in order to traumatize them. The neighbours are weary and compassion for the refugee has grown cold. Help us Lord. How long Lord? Fortify your church to be lovingly present and to boldly confess your good news to poor and to the powerful.

We lift up to you our campus community and pray that every ministry and church would thrive according to your call. We reside in a place of many words, many plans, and many hopeful masters of their own destinies; pride has cast its spell. So Come Lord Jesus, Come and set the captives free.

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer of the people was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 19 March 2021.

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Where are the desperate prayers?

March 19, 2021 0 Comments

The fridge is empty and a friend has arrived at midnight. He’s hungry. You know your neighbour had loads of pizza delivered so you go and knock on the door thinking surely he has leftovers. So with shameless audacity you go, knock, and knock, and knock, till he awakens, and then you ask. He gives you a box of pizza — so he can go back to sleep.

Jesus told this story first. Luke 11:5-10.

Jesus is describing something we don’t really believe to be true. We don’t really believe our spiritual cupboards are empty, barren, and lacking. Every time our friends arrive in their night asking for help we offer them something from our north american affluence, rather than from the zone of our poverty. We would rather not admit our barren spiritual cupboards. We would rather deny the spiritual dependency of our hearts because we don’t like to admit our emptiness. Somehow we have turned a reality of the spiritual life, depleted spiritual cupboards, into something shameful, something to be denied.

Jesus doesn’t treat reality that way. Nor does He treat us that way.

One disciple was willing to confess their spiritual poverty (Luke 11:1) so he asked, “Lord teach us to pray.” Jesus doesn’t just teach the “Lord’s Prayer; He is offering us a pathway to regular renewal. Jesus reveals that our Heavenly Father delights to give the good gift of the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (See Luke 11:11-13)

Every now and then we may throw up a quick “Oh Lord fill me with your Spirit.” But where are the desperate prayers? Desperate prayers are founded in a desperate realization: “I have neighbours asking for real help and my spiritual cupboard is empty. The daily bread has been eaten. It’s the middle of their night and Lord we need help! Come Lord fill us with your Spirit!”

Many neighbours, many friends, are in a long night of longing, having been ransacked by the world and the evil one. Dear Church they are not sure they can still come to you for help.

Are you persisting and longing in prayer before the Father who loves you and is willing to fill you?
In the asking we are positioned to receive.
In the seeking we are positioned to find.
In the knocking we are positioned to be welcomed.

Praise be to God. He is our good Father! Jesus says He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

“‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…” Ephesians 5:14-18

Prayer

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