Heavenly Father,
We delight in you. Your handiwork has been on display this week in glorious fashion. The cool mornings and warmer days. The new greens and flowering trees on the backdrop of evergreens and blues skies and the shimmering waters of the Georgia Straight. Thank you for this grace to see and acknowledge you as the Creator of All. You do all things well! Though our seasons change, you do not change. You have brought us into your Communion that has existed forever: the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We need your help Lord Jesus; change is hard for us. There is a chasm, a great divide still in our hearts and in the pattern of our lives. Between the rich and the poor. Between the favoured and the unfavoured. Between those who are like us and those who are not. And too often Lord it seems we fall victim to our prejudices. We settle into our circles of comfort without giving attention to the log in our eyes. We have a frail semblance of love for we refuse to seek your grace for what is awkward.
Forgive us Lord. Give us a new heart. Give us a new Spirit. Renew a right heart within us. Cause us to be a blessing to the city, to the campus, and to our neighbour – even the neighbour who shares space with us whether they be family or roommates or even lab-mates. Give us the joy of your salvation. And let us see the brilliance of your new creation in Christ Jesus.
Your Spirit, Lord, seeks to cause your church to rise as a people animated by You for your glory. We lift up your church now, our brothers and sisters who are under pressure in some communities in China and in Nigeria. Where your church is seeking to love their neighbours through the pandemic, fortify them even through their own griefs to be able to love. May you comfort these dear children of Jesus.
We pray that the glory of Jesus may be seen through our brokenness — we’ve been pieced together again by Your power. You have shown us mercy and we say Great is your Faithfulness.
Now we pray again as Jesus has taught us:
(Join with 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 14 May 2021.