Daily Prayer for August 28, 2021

Prayer: Grant almighty God that we, as your redeemed people, would take seriously and uphold the ordinary means of grace that you have graciously given to your church. We confess that we live in a day and age when your people have departed from those means, inventing newfangled ways of worshiping you. Yet, your Word plainly tells us that we are to approach you on your terms. The church of old was given strict and exacting instructions as to how they should approach you. Under penalty of death, they risked their very existence by offering strange fire before you. Therefore, because you are holy, you demand that we approach you with fear and reverence, as to a Father who loves and cares for us. Yet, somehow, we think you need our help by inventing strange and weird things, calling it worship when it is, in fact, an abomination before you. As we look around our world and see the state of the church, we are forced to concede that we are not better off for engaging in such behavior. We are lured and enticed to invent worship out of our feeble and fallen minds. Our hearts seem to desire that which you have not ordered. Forgive your church, Lord. Please grant us a great zeal for your worship and give us that same frame and desire that you have for it as well. These things we pray and confess through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Scripture Meditation: Ex. 20:1-6; Lev. 10;1-3; Is. 6